Lights That Lead Us There Are Blinding
by TakeItTo22
Summary: An AU of Roads: What would happen if Sarah's mom had never been shot? A look at what their high school years could have been like. :
1. FartKnocker

**A/N:** So, I'm not supposed to say this, in fact, **mxpw** wanted me to say that it's my own fault that Chapter Ten of **Roads** isn't posted yet. But the truth is, well, to put it nicely, it's the holidays, and **mxpw** is a busy guy. I mean, yeah, I did send him the chapter about a week ago, and he's still not finished editing it, so…

To make up for the delay, that is "totally my fault," I decided to write an AU for Roads. An AU of an AU…that's crazy, isn't it? Well, to put it simply, I was curious to see what would have happened to Chuck and Sarah if her mom never got shot when she was 12. So that's what this story is about—their high school years. Dun, dun, dun!

Anyway, so I hope you guys give this a chance! Let me know if you like it, and this hasn't been beta'ed, so all the mistakes are mine!

**Disclaimer:** But what isn't mine is **Chuck**. That belongs to NBC, so I hope I don't get sued!

**April, 1993 (Age Twelve)**

Minutes went by, and the two of them just stood there. While they were both beyond ecstatic, neither had any idea what to say or do next. Timidly, Sarah held her hand out to Chuck. As he laced his fingers around hers, Sarah felt herself blushing for the thousandth time.

"So," Sarah began, wracking her brain for something to break the silence. "Uh…there's _another_ Terminator in the second movie?"

"What?" asked Chuck, looking at Sarah in confusion. Then a look of realization spread across his face. "Oh, yeah! Like, he's liquid metal, right? And it's super crazy! He looks small, but he's _really_ mean! There was this part where he threw the original Terminator out of the window! I don't know how they're going to stop him, because he's indestructible!"

Sarah smiled as Chuck continued talking about the liquid metal Terminator. She found him to be really cute whenever he babbled—especially when he babbled about things that he was passionate about. She stepped as close as she could next to him, and when she could get any closer, she released his hand, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. She had once seen a couple walking into her parents' store one day, and the girl was walking around with her head resting on her boyfriend's shoulder. Sarah tried this, but since Chuck was shorter than her, she just rested her head on top of his.

When they reached Sarah's street, Chuck began to turn, only to be pulled away be Sarah.

"I have to help my mom stock golf clubs today," she told him. "I'll just walk you home, and maybe…if you want…um…you can come over for dinner tonight?"

Chuck smiled bashfully. "Okay. Do you want me to bring over _The Goonies_?"

"Duh!" Sarah giggled.

After she walked Chuck to his house, Sarah happily skipped (something she hadn't done in years) to her parents' sporting goods store. For the last twenty minutes, Sarah just couldn't wipe the grin off her face! She was certain that nothing could put a damper on her good mood.

She stepped up to the door of her parents' store, and beamed. "Mrs. Sarah Bartowski," she whispered to herself."I like it!"

A man that was leaving the store, holding a few large bags filled with baseball mitts, held the door open for Sarah. She quickly thanked him and ran up to the counter where her mother was.

"Hey, Sarah," said Dana with her usual smile. "Did you have a good day today?"

"It was the _best!_" Sarah exclaimed happily as she flung her backpack down behind the counter. "Chuck asked me to the dance!"

**Four Years Later  
October 12, 1997**

They're relationship didn't quite work out in the way that Sarah had expected. There were no spotlights that focused on only them, as she and Chuck slow-danced to _I Will Always Love You_ by Whitney Houston. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't really remember if they had even danced. All she remembered was that Chuck was _really_ sweaty that night.

Something had happened after that night, and it wasn't something that Sarah was particularly proud of. Her thirteen-year-old self was just expecting too much, and when Chuck had refused to dance with her, that had seemed like the end of the world to her. Of course, she couldn't see that all the other boys weren't dancing with their dates, either. It was, after all, middle school. Who dances at middle school dances? But after that night, she, as delicately as a thirteen-year-old could do, told Chuck: "Hey, let's just be friends. We're better at that, I think."

Chuck, being the sweet kid he was, pretended to be cool with it. But now that Sarah was seventeen, and she totally knew how the world worked, she was able to see that he was only pretending.

But that was the past, and this was the now. She and Chuck were still best friends, even though Sarah was the most popular girl in school (which was saying something, since she didn't even have a car yet), and Chuck…well, he wasn't the _coolest_ kid, but he was still cool. Sarah was also dating Bryce Larkin—star soccer forward, captain of the soccer team, and was voted most likely to become President three years in a row. He was cool, she supposed, good looking to boot. The guy hardly had any acne.

However, there was a part of her that still liked Chuck more than a friend. He may not be the coolest kid in school to all of the other kids, but damn it, he was cool in Sarah's eyes. The main concern, though, was their friendship. They got along so well, and what would happen if they _did_ go out and it didn't work out? There goes their friendship down the toilet, and if that happened, Sarah didn't know what she would do. It was frustrating, liking Chuck so much, but being unable to do anything about it.

Think happy thoughts, she reminded herself as she stood outside Chuck's house, like she always did, so that they could go to school. Just be glad that you still have him as a friend.

Chuck walked out of his house, like he always did, with a Pop-Tart hanging out of his mouth, and swinging his backpack over his shoulders. He had grown quite a bit over the summer. It was almost scary how he seemed to grow overnight. Sarah used to be taller than him for nearly their entire lives, but now, Chuck was towering over her.

He walked up to Sarah and handed her his second Pop-Tart, like he always did, and they began to walk down his street.

"Thanks," she said, breaking off a piece of the pastry. "Did we have homework in English?"

Chuck shook his head, holding up a finger, as he still chewed his breakfast. "Sort of. We just had to finish chapter nine of _Gatsby_."

"Oops, totally forgot about that."

"Me too," he said with a shrug. "That probably means we'll have a pop-quiz today."

Sarah chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Yep. Probably. Hardcore reading session in the library during lunch?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied. "Oh! I have something for you." Chuck began to dig in his pocket. "Since you're always borrowing my CDs for like years at a time, I made you a mixtape of the songs you said you liked."

Sarah pumped her fist happily as Chuck handed her a cassette tape. "Yes! Chuck, I'm being totally serious here. You make, like, _the_ phattest mixes _ever_!"

"What can I say?" asked Chuck modestly. "Let me know if you like it, though, I made another one for Jill."

_Ugh…Jill freaking Roberts…_

Sarah tried hard to mask the look of disgust on her face, but did a poor job. She couldn't help it! She hated Jill Roberts, and her, "Oh, my name's Jill, and I'm smart, and Chuck loves me because I love videogames!" What a smug bitch.

"You made her the same tape that you made me?" asked Sarah, noticing that her voice was icier than she had intended. She cleared her throat. "That's ghetto, Chuck."

"How is it ghetto?"

"Dude, if you really like a girl, then you can't give her the same mix you made for another girl." Why the hell was she telling him this? This ruined any chance of her blasting the same mixtape that Chuck had made her in the same vicinity where Jill was. Damn it!

"Why not?"

Sarah sighed. "You'd think that you would know what girls like and don't like seeing as you have an older sister." She rolled her eyes. "Ellie picked the wrong time to go to college," she added in an undertone. "Anyway, just give Jill the tape. See what happens."

Chuck frowned. "I still don't get why it's wrong to give—"

"It's wrong because girls like to have things that other girls don't!" she cried in frustration. Chuck was a sweet guy, but sometimes…

"I should write this down," said Chuck jokingly, grabbing a pen from his pocket. "Tell me more, oh great Sarah!"

Sarah laughed, and gave Chuck noogie. "Such a nerd…"

When she released him, he shook his head, and attempted to fix his shaggy hair.

**First Period—Chemistry**

As always, Carina Hansen plopped down beside Chuck with an overly dramatic sigh and an overly gestured hair toss. She rested her elbow on the table, and held out her hand, purposely avoiding looking at him as though he had a disease. He reached into his bag and pulled out an additional copy of the lab report that he wrote for her.

"Here you go," he said, handing her the paper.

She didn't thank him as she snatched the report from his hand. When Chuck had told Sarah that he was forced to be lab partners with Carina Hansen on the first day of their senior year, Sarah suggested that he sabotage Carina. He knew how Sarah disliked—okay, so hate was a better word—Carina with a passion.

When he asked her why, Sarah's answer was, "She's a freaking _hoochie!_ Didn't you hear that she gave all the guys on the football team head?"

He never heard that before then, but that very same day, that rumor had spread across the school like wildfire. Since the only other friend that Chuck had besides Sarah was Morgan, and he had never told Morgan what he heard, he assumed that it was Sarah that had spread that rumor. But in Sarah's defense, Carina had started a rumor about her having herpes, so…

They were rivals, Sarah and Carina. Chuck knew enough about girls to know that they were quite competitive. And seeing as Sarah and Carina were the prettiest girls in school, and the best female athletes to boot, it didn't surprise Chuck that the two girls hated each other. But whenever he went to Sarah's soccer games, she and Carina had worked awesomely together.

Chuck winced when he felt something cold and wet hitting the back of his neck. He rolled his eyes as he wiped the saliva off the back of his neck from Bryce Larkin's spit-wad. Bryce and the other jocks laughed, and Chuck could hear them slapping their hands together behind him. He would never say that he hated anyone, but Bryce came close. Not only was Bryce a jerk to him, but he was also dating Sarah, who Chuck happened to be in love with.

And Sarah, who was not only the most popular girl at school, but was also the most feared by guys and girls (save for Carina) alike, had always told Chuck, "If any of these scrubs gives you any shit, you tell me and I'll take care of them." But how could he tattle on Bryce when he was Sarah's boyfriend? Also, Chuck needed to stand up for himself.

He turned his body to face the stupidly good-looking Bryce and his stupider friends.

"What are you looking at, Fart-Knocker?" asked Bryce.

Chuck sighed. He still had another eight months before graduation. He'd stand up to Bryce before then. But for now, he couldn't come up with a clever retort for "Fart-Knocker," so he shrugged and turned around, trying to ignore the guffaws issuing from the jocks behind him.

**Lunch Break**

Sarah stood in the lunch line where they served Domino's Pizza beside Bryce. All she needed to do was grab a few slices of 'za, and go up to the library to meet Chuck.

"Babe," said Bryce, squeezing her hand. "Kowalski is throwing a kegger after homecoming. You down?"

"For sure," she replied.

"It's going to be off the hook! We're gonna get so _wasted_!"

Bryce stretched his face over to her and began to kiss her. There was such a thing as too much tongue, thought Sarah as she reluctantly kissed him back. Suddenly, someone bumped into her—hard. Her nose smashed into Bryce's cheek, and his nose smashed into her cheek. It freaking hurt! She took a step back and turned around. Before she even saw who had bumped into her, she cried, "Watch where you're going, you—" It was Carina. "Oh, I thought I smelled hooker."

"Gross!" Carina cried, stepping away from Sarah. "You touched me! I better not have herpes!"

Sarah grimaced. "Quit breathing on me—you might give me AIDS!"

Carina glanced over at Bryce. "Once you're done with Walker, make sure you go to the clinic. I heard this one's been around the block."

With that, Carina slithered away, while Bryce laughed. Sarah glared at him. First of all, to clear the record, she didn't have herpes. The furthest she ever got with a guy was third base, thank you very much.

She socked Bryce on the shoulder. "Way to stand up for your girlfriend, dick."

"Dude!" Bryce protested, still laughing, while rubbing his shoulder. "C'mon, that was some funny shit!"

"Ugh…whatever." Sarah released her hand from Bryce's and stepped out of the line. Bryce may have been hot, but man, even Sarah had to admit that he was a tool. She constantly wondered why she was with him, but the answer was simple. He was the most popular guy in school, and, besides Chuck, every guy in the school was a tool as well, and since she couldn't be with Chuck, she might as well just date Bryce until she goes off to college.

High school was a constant war zone, she knew. If you were lucky enough to be popular, then you had to do what it took to stay that way. She was already treading on some dangerous waters by being friends with Chuck. It made her wish that others would give the poor guy a chance and get to know him. Yes, he was nerdy, but he was also a really sweet guy. She decided to invite Chuck to the kegger. It was their senior year, and although she should have done it sooner, it was time for the school to see how great Chuck really was.

And as though the world had been reading her thoughts, from the corner of her eye, she saw Chuck waiting by the cafeteria entrance. Sarah waved at him and turned to Bryce. "I'm going to go up to the library with Chuck."

He looked at her in dismay. "Honestly, babe, I don't know how you can hang out with that kid. He's such a loser, don't you think?"

A surge of annoyance rushed through her. She glared at her boyfriend. "He's a really great guy," she said as patiently as she could. "And he's not a loser!"

"He totally is a loser!" Bryce protested. "Seriously…he brings those…" he trailed off a bit. "Those stupid wizard books to school. How is he not a loser?"

She huffed out a breath. "I'm going to invite Chuck to Kowalski's kegger." Bryce opened his mouth to protest, but Sarah went on. "Just give him a chance. I know you'll like him."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Have fun hanging out with the geek."

He prefers nerd, she thought as Bryce leaned over to give her another kiss.

**Library**

_The Great Gatsby_ was a terrible book. Chuck got why it was important, being pretty much the first soap opera, but man, it was _so_ boring! He glanced over at Sarah, who was sitting beside him on the floor, and he saw that her eyes weren't moving while she stared at the book. In fact, she looked upset.

"What part are you on?" he asked.

Sarah looked up. "I don't know. I can't remember anything. This book sucks."

"I concur." He let out a yawn and stretched. "At least all of Lippencott's quizzes are multiple choice, and he usually goes by the same pattern."

"C, B, D, A, B, C?" guessed Sarah.

"Yep."

They laughed.

"So what's up?" he asked.

"Uh…nothing? Why?"

He frowned. "You look sort of pissed. What happened?"

"Oh, uh…Carina bumped into me earlier, and I have this urge to go home and take a bath in rubbing alcohol," she replied, chuckling. "God, I hate her."

"Hm," Chuck responded.

Suddenly, Sarah peaked up. "Speaking of, did you botch her lab report like I asked you to?"

"Dude, that's so mean," he said. "I mean, I don't like Carina very much either, but—"

"Well, she should learn to do her own damn homework!"

"Good point, but—"

"Or at least pay you, or blow—"

"Whoa!" Chuck shook his head. "C'mon, now! You just said that she was dirty."

"Figure of speech, Chuckles." Sarah ruffled his hair. She seemed to like doing that. "If she touches you, then I think I would lose all my respect for you, and keep in mind, you still playing D&D is losing you a lot of cool points, so you're pretty much hanging by a thread."

"You're just mad because Morgan won't let you play anymore after you threw his dice across the room, and we couldn't find it!"

"Well, that's what you guys get for cheating."

Chuck groaned. No matter how many times he's told Sarah that it was nearly impossible to cheat at _Dungeons and Dragons_, she kept insisting that that's what they were doing. She was always so damn competitive. "We weren't cheating!"

"If you say so." Sarah slammed her book shut as the lunch bell rang. Chuck began to pack his book back into his bag while Sarah stood and dusted herself off. "So I have soccer practice after school, but I'll see you at dinner, yeah?"

"Depends on what your mom's making," said Chuck with a grin. Ever since his mother had left a couple of years ago, and now that Ellie was going to school at Berkley, Chuck had been going over to the Walker's for dinner nearly every night of the week.

"I think Mom's going to order Chinese tonight," she said. "So sesame chicken and crab rangoons, right?"

"Oh, if you're going to order in, then I'll just eat something at home. Or at the least, I'll pay—"

Sarah flicked him on his nose and laughed. "Chill out, Chuck! You know my parents don't care. It's cheap Chinese food. " As Chuck stood, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they left the library. He felt a tingle running down his spine. God, she smelled good. "You better be there tonight at six, or I'll kick your ass."

While he knew that Sarah would never actually kick his ass, she still scared him at times. So Chuck, being the brave kid that he was, nodded. "I'll be there at 5:50, then."

"Good." Sarah grinned as she bumped her hip into his, and they made their way to their next class.

**After School**

It wasn't too unusual for him to stay after school in the library to work on his homework. His father was always home, but he was always working in his office, so he knew that his homework wouldn't get done, knowing that his Nintendo 64 was waiting for him, and with no one to give him a push to finish his assignments. So he did all of his homework in the library. He usually spent this time alone, but today, Jill Roberts, a girl that Chuck sort of liked, was with him.

She had told him that she needed help with her calculus homework, but he knew that she wasn't being entirely truthful. She was probably the best student, next to him, in that class. But Chuck didn't mind her company.

They discussed derivatives, limits, identities, and such for the past hour. When they finished the last problem of their assignment, Chuck put his pencil down.

"So yeah, that wasn't too bad, right?" he asked.

"Not bad at all," she replied with a smile. "Oh, guess what? I just got _Zelda_ the other day, and oh my God, I can't stop playing it!"

"Oh, I know!" Chuck agreed. "Why do you think I'm here? If I was at home, then I'd never get my homework done!"

"You got it too?"

Chuck rolled his eyes. "Duh! And _Goldeneye_? So freaking good!"

One of the things that Chuck liked about Jill was that she was probably the third girl in his life that he could actually hold a conversation with. She was also the only girl in his life that played videogames, so that brought her up a few notches in his opinion. Sometimes, Chuck would compare her to Sarah. While he and Jill had a lot of things in common, like videogames, _Magic_, and _D&D_, he still found Sarah to be more fun to be around.

But he knew that Sarah didn't like him in the way he liked her. She was the coolest girl at school, for the love of God! Even if she broke up with Bryce, there was a huge line of guys that would love to go out with her. And in that line of potential boyfriends, Chuck probably stood near the end, next to Gordon, the obese kid who got in trouble for stealing food from the cafeteria.

Chuck had been single all throughout high school. It was shameful to admit, but he had never even kissed a girl before! How sad was that, he thought.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. Jill seemed interested in him. He knew that she didn't have a boyfriend, either, and homecoming was coming up.

Jill continued to talk about videogames. When she had concluded that _Final Fantasy VII_ was the best game ever made, Chuck made his move. This was his chance to be bold! "Homecoming go with me?"

Damn it! How did he botch that?

Jill stared at him with a puzzled expression. "Excuse me?"

Trying hard not to stab himself in the thigh with his pencil so he could have blamed his slip-up on lead poisoning, Chuck cleared his throat. "Do you want to go to homecoming with me?"

Jill's face turned a deep shade of red as she bit down on her lower lip. "Oh, gosh, really?"

"Uh…yes?"

"Yes, I'll go to homecoming with you!" she exclaimed loudly.

"Really?" he asked, feeling shocked. He really didn't know why he was shocked. After all, he _did_ ask her to go with him, and he _knew_ that there was an eighty-seven percent chance that she would say yes.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, cool..." he trailed off. Should he give her a hug or something? "So—"

"Are you doing anything after this?" she asked excitedly. "I was thinking that we could play _Goldeneye_ at my house."

"Ooh, I actually already have plans," he said, with an apologetic look. "Sarah wants me to go to her house for dinner."

The look on Jill's face had caused the room to drop down in temperature. Or that was how he felt, anyway. "Sarah, as in, Sarah Walker?"

Why were girls so scary? Jill's glare was quite vicious, and Chuck feared that she might turn into a Rancor and eat him. "Yeah, she's my friend," he squeaked.

Jill rolled her eyes. "I don't get how you could _be_ friends with her."

"What are you talking about?" Chuck actually laughed. "Sarah's a really cool girl, and—"

"Then why didn't you ask her to homecoming, then?" snapped Jill.

He was about to tell her that Sarah already had a boyfriend, but stopped when he realized that that was a terrible way to respond. "Uh…because we're just friends," he went with. It was the truth. That was all they ever would be.

**Soccer Field**

Sarah pulled off her shin guards and shoved them into her duffle-bag. After pulling out her normal shoes, she began to untie her cleats when Chuck walked up to her.

She grinned up at him. "I thought you'd be home by now."

"Lots of homework for Calc," he replied with a shrug. "How was practice?"

"Well, aside from me wanting to kick the ball at Carina's face, it was fine," she replied. "So I was thinking, we haven't watched _The Goonies_ since last winter. I don't have too much homework tonight, so maybe we could—"

"Yeah…about tonight," said Chuck, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. "I can't make it."

"Why the hell not?" Sarah frowned. Chuck never missed out on dinner with her and her parents.

"I, uh…asked Jill to go to homecoming with me, and she said yes."

Something pinched inside her chest. "Okay, well, what does that have to do with you not being able to make it for dinner?"

Chuck blew out a breath of air. "She invited me over to her house for dinner, so…yeah…"

"Dude, Chuck!" protested Sarah. "Chinese food! _The Goonies!_ And there's a new _Real World_ on too! You love making fun of those guys with me!"

"Yeah, I do, but I really like Jill." He didn't look at her as he said that. "Maybe Bryce can take my spot?"

Everything Chuck had said must have killed something inside of her, because she was in pain. Sarah opened her mouth to tell Chuck to tell Jill to screw off, because she had known Chuck longer than Jill had, and she's more important than that eggheady, brunette nerd. But she decided against it. Who was she to tell Chuck those things when she was dating someone else? And Chuck had told her that he liked Jill, so why should she keep him away from being happy?

She gazed past Chuck and saw Jill standing at the end of the field, staring at them. Turning her attention back to Chuck, Sarah forced a smile. "Yeah, I guess Bryce can take your spot. But only for tonight! You better make it to dinner tomorrow."

Chuck grinned. "All right. I'll see you tomorrow morning, then?"

"You bet."

"Okay, well, later!"

"Have fun, Chuckles," she said, still forcing herself to smile. Sarah watched him as he walked away towards Jill and her smile faded. "Bitch better not hurt him," she muttered to herself.

Little did she know, however, that behind her, a certain redhead had been watching the events that had just unfolded.

**A/N:** I hope you liked!


	2. Chikka Cherry Cola

**A/N:** Well, hi there! Long time no see, am I right? Well, I'll let you guys read this first. I'll have more to say at the end (_Roads _related). :) Oh, this wasn't beta'd so all mistakes are my own!  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own Chuck.

* * *

**October 17, 1997**

"I am the God of meatloaf!" cried Bryce, raising his knife and fork over his head. "All things meaty shall bow down to me!"

With that, Bryce dug into his meatloaf while Sarah and her family stared apprehensively at her boyfriend. Her father, Gerald, raised an eyebrow, murmured, "Christ, son..." and gave her mother, Dana, a look that said, "Our daughter is dating _that_? Really?"

Sarah responded with a look of her own, "Yeah, I'm dating him. Really, though, he's not _that_ bad." She exchanged a half smile with her mother and cut off a piece of meatloaf.

Since Tuesday, Bryce and a handful of her other friends were all she had. Even though her friends, and Bryce, were pretty cool to hang out with, Sarah couldn't _really_ talk to them. The only person she felt comfortable talking to, other than her mother, was Chuck. And Chuck was dating stupid Jill. Apart from walking to school together every morning, Sarah had barely spent any time with the kid.

It made her miss him.

Her thoughts slipped away when she felt a rough tap on her shoulder. Sarah's three-year old brother, Conner, was sitting beside her in his high chair, tapping away with his plastic fork.

To her, her brother was the cutest little kid on the planet. He had big, round, green eyes with the cutest brown bowl haircut.

Sarah beamed at her brother, who was offering her a chicken strip. "Is that for me?" she asked while she signed with her hands.

Conner nodded.

"Why, thank you, Conner!" She took the chicken strip and took a bite. Opening her eyes widely, again, she signed, "That is _really_ good!"

The small, chubby cheeked boy grinned in agreement.

Before Conner was born, there had been some complications. He was born six weeks premature and was jaundiced. The doctors said that that was what caused his deafness. He was fitted with a cute hearing aid, and he was now beginning to understand spoken language better.

Like any good older sister would do, Sarah learned ASL. And like any good friend would do, Chuck was there with her. He had told her, "You, your parents, and Conner are basically my family. The least I could do is learn sign language. Plus, we could use it during classes and we won't get in trouble." Together, they would sign and speak with Conner to help him put the spoken language with the signed.

Just as Sarah was about to take another bite of the chicken strip, she noticed Conner looking around the table and his smile slowly transitioned into a look of concern.

"Where's Chuck?"

_At his stupid girlfriend's house_.

Sarah swallowed. She knew that Conner adored Chuck, and Chuck, in return, adored Conner. In fact, sometimes Chuck would spend more time with Conner, constructing things with large building blocks or building train tracks, than he spent with her. She had always suspected that Chuck just wanted to play with Conner just so he had an excuse to play with toys again. But it made her happy to see how much the two of them got along.

Bryce was too absorbed in his third piece of meatloaf to even notice that Sarah's face fell.

"He's busy," she finally replied, while absentmindedly taking another bite off the chicken strip.

The boy looked crushed. "We were supposed to play _Power Rangers_."

"Maybe Bryce can play _Power Rangers_ with you after we eat?" she suggested, looking at Bryce.

He was busy reaching across the table for another helping of mashed potatoes to notice, so Sarah nudged him.

"What?" asked Bryce, sounding exasperated as though she had just interrupted something important.

"Do you want to play _Power Rangers _with Conner after dinner?" she asked.

Bryce let out a guffaw. "Are you serious?"

She nodded.

Bryce cleared his throat as he looked around the table. Nervously, he scratched his chin. "Uh…I actually have to…me and my dad are gonna fix up the old Camaro tonight."

What a lame lie, thought Sarah. Chuck would have gladly obliged.

"Plus, I gotta hit the sack early tonight," he said. "The homecoming game's tomorrow, remember?"

"Right." He didn't even play football.

"Oh, speaking of homecoming," said Dana with a grin, "a little birdie stopped by the store today and told me that you're a shoe-in for homecoming queen!"

"Totally, she is!" cried Bryce. "It's not surprising. She's the hottest girl—"

Gerald cleared his throat loudly.

Immediately, Bryce backtracked, his face flushing. "What I meant to say was that Sarah is the…_beautifullest_ girl in school."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Smoke another beer, Bryce," she muttered under her breath.

She watched as Bryce, sitting in Chuck's usual seat, turned his attention back to his meal. She really wanted Chuck back.

* * *

Chuck and Jill walked hand in hand down the aisles at the local comic book shop, having a friendly debate about who would win if Batman and the Green Lantern had gotten in a fight.

"The thing is," Chuck explained, "it's not a fair fight at all! If it was Bruce Wayne fighting Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne would win hands down. But if they were fighting against each other in their superhero alter-egos, then the Lantern would win. That's only because of his stupid ring, though. But then again, Batman's a smart dude. If he was told, beforehand, that he would be brawling with the Lantern, then he would probably build some sort of device that can keep the power ring from working properly."

"But if it just happened randomly, then Batman would lose," said Jill, stopping to pick up _The Killing Joke_ graphic novel.

"Totally." Chuck looked at the cover of the novel that Jill was holding. "Have you read that?"

Jill shook her head.

"Oh, man," breathed Chuck. He took his wallet from his back pocket and checked how much money he had. When he saw that he had enough to pay for the book, he took it from Jill's hand. "I have to get this for you. It's definitely in my top ten list of best graphic novels ever written! Alan Moore is a freaking genius!"

"Chuck, you don't have to do that!" she cried, reaching to take back the book. "I can get it myself."

He held the book above his head. "Nope. I _want_ to buy it for you. Really, it's cool."

She beamed adoringly up at him, stood up on her toes, and kissed him on his cheek. He felt a pleasant tingle from where her lips had been, and he led Jill over to the counter to purchase the book. As Chuck handed it to the cashier, he looked at the glass counter beneath the register and saw a Green Ranger action figure.

The Green Ranger was Conner's favorite Power Ranger.

While he enjoyed spending time with Jill over the last week, Chuck suddenly felt a pang in his chest. He hadn't spent any time with Sarah or her family in quite some time. He missed them. He missed Mrs. Walker's amazing cooking, Mr. Walker's deadpanned jokes, Conner's shared enthusiasm for building train tracks, but most of all, Chuck missed Sarah.

"The total comes to nineteen dollars and twenty-eight cents," said the cashier, snapping Chuck back to reality. Chuck handed the cashier a twenty, and took the change and the plastic bag as he and Jill made their way out of the store.

Jill was a power-walker. Everywhere she went, she would walk at full speed. Chuck, on the other hand, well…he didn't walk quite as fast. Ever since his rapid, he liked to call it "mutant-like," growth spurt, he would sometimes stumble over his feet. Whenever Chuck was within her vicinity, Jill would grasp onto his hand and pull him forward, making him feel like a dog

As she pulled him toward her car, Chuck stopped, remembering the Green Ranger action figure at the store. Conner's birthday was coming up, he remembered. The least he could do was to get the little guy a present.

"What's up?" asked Jill, looking up concernedly at him.

"I just remembered that I had to pick something up for my dad," he lied, feeling guilt creeping up on him. But if Chuck had told Jill that he wanted to get Sarah's little brother a present, she would get that Rancor look on her face, and that was really creepy. He looked around and saw a small computer shop in the strip mall they were at. "I need to get him a new video card for his computer."

She tugged his hand, and began to lead him back toward the strip mall. "I'll go with you."

"No, it's fine," he said, forcing a grin. "It's going to be awhile. It's getting pretty late too. My house isn't too far from here, so you can go home." Chuck winced a bit. He had rushed through that speech pretty quickly.

However, Jill just frowned the tiniest bit. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

With that, she stepped forward and gave him a hug.

That was easy, he thought as he returned the hug. "So…uh…I'll pick you up tomorrow for the dance?"

With her arms still wrapped around him, she nodded and beamed. "Definitely. I'm so excited! It's going to be fun!"

"Totally," he said, trying not to wince at the thought of stepping on Jill's feet throughout the night. Not noticing the look of expectation on her face, as she still beamed up at him, Chuck took a step back. He saw the look on Jill's face drop. For a fraction of a second, she looked like a little girl whose father had bought her an ice cream cone, but she dropped it after the first lick.

That's odd, he thought.

After they said their goodbyes, Chuck watched as Jill drove out of the parking lot. As he wandered back into the comic shop to buy Connor his birthday present, it dawned on him. Jill had wanted him to kiss her.

He gulped. "Oh, God."

* * *

_I Want You_ by Savage Garden was blaring through the PA system. Chuck knew he wasn't a dancer, but for the life of him, he just couldn't figure out how one would dance to a song like this. He stood awkwardly, elbows on his ribcage, hands clenched into fists, and bopped them to what he believed was the beat. Jill did the same. However, unlike him, Jill wasn't putting all of her focus on trying not to bite his bottom lip.

No.

He was not going to be _that_ guy.

Sarah seemed to have found her rhythm. For a moment, Chuck stopped concentrating on trying not to get "the white guy's overbite," and he watched as Sarah moved her body fluidly to the music on the other side of the gym. She was literally glowing. The multi-colored lights bounced off her white dress and her blonde hair, which was in a pretty elegant bun.

Boy, she was really pretty.

Bryce, on the other hand, looked a little green.

"Chuck, overbite!" Jill cried.

"Aw, dang it," he mumbled, clenching his teeth together.

He focused again on Jill.

She looked pretty too—in her dark green dress with her hair styled in loose curls. He hoped that she didn't notice him staring at Sarah. Seriously, the girl seemed to hate Sarah for no good reason at all. They hadn't even talked yet. Maybe if he just had them talk for awhile, they'd all be friends—

He remembered Jill's Rancor mode, and he quickly dropped the thought.

The "chikka cherry cola" song was finally over, and now, _Look into My Eyes_ by Bone Thugz and Harmony was playing.

"Worst DJ ever," said Chuck.

He closed his eyes to try to get the beat count to this impossible to dance song, but lost count when he felt a tap on his shoulder. When he opened his eyes, he saw Sarah beaming at him. Before he was able to greet her, she pulled him into a hug.

"Hey!" she cried happily as she stepped back to scan her eyes over him. "Lookin' sharp!"

"Thank you, Queen Sarah," said Chuck with a grin. "You are looking…" he trailed off and glanced over at Jill, "_nice_ as well. Congrats on the crown, by the way."

She waved a hand. "Meh. It's scratching the crap out of my scalp, but thanks!" Sarah turned to Jill. "Are you guys having fun?"

He was observant enough to see that the smile on Jill's face was forced as she replied, "Yeah. How about you?"

"Well, other than the fact that it's about a million degrees in here, it's pretty fun."

Jill laughed. It was _so_ icy!

"Do you mind if I talk to Chuck for a bit?" asked Sarah. "It feels like I haven't talked to him in a million years, you know?"

"Don't you guys walk to school together?"

Both girls' eyes narrowed, and the hot gymnasium suddenly turned frigid.

Dear Batman, Chuck silently prayed as the two girls' smiles faded into glares, I'm sorry that Joker killed Robin, and that I was kind of rooting for it. But please, find it in your heart to—

"Whoa!"

Sarah pulled Chuck by his arm. "He'll be back in like two minutes!" she yelled over her shoulder at Jill. "Make yourself useful and get him some punch!"

Chuck hurriedly gave Jill and apologetic look. He hoped that she would understand that Sarah had the grip of Superman and there was no way he could fight her off. But it wasn't like he wanted to fight her off. She had a point. Even though they walked to school together every morning, it wasn't enough time to truly enjoy each other's company. And he _did_ miss her a lot.

"I don't know how you could date her," said Sarah as she stopped next to the entrance.

"She's not so bad," he said. He tried so hard not to think about the Rancor. "Uh…so where's Bryce?"

"Well, seeing as we went to El Mariachi for dinner…" she trailed off and glanced over to the end of the gym where the bathrooms were.

"Say no more," said Chuck with a grimace.

She laughed along with him, and he felt a pleasant tingle as she rested her hand on his arm.

"Where did you take Jill for dinner?"

"Red Lobster."

"Whoa, there, Mr. Fancy-Pants!" she cried with a laugh. "You looking to get lucky tonight?"

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, definitely," he replied sarcastically.

Her smile slowly faded. "Really?"

"What? No!" He laughed. "We've only been dating for a little bit." A thought occurred to him. Sarah and Bryce had been dating way longer than he and Jill had. "What about you and Bryce?" he blurted.

He feared that he crossed the line, but to his relief, Sarah just smiled and shook her head. "Definitely not. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a slut."

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant." He remembered Sarah's and Carina's odd insult rivalry. "I mean, you know…you and Bryce have been together for awhile, so…"

"Yeah…don't think I'm ready for that," she said, shrugging.

Chuck nodded with a straight face, although he wanted to grin. "Hm…so speaking of the Sarah Walker's a slut rumors, I think with you getting crowned Homecoming queen, those rumors are going to run rampant again. You know, with Carina probably being jealous and all."

"Probably. Damn fire-crotch."

He laughed. "Well, before that happens, I have leverage on Carina, so I could probably stop her from saying anything."

"Leverage?"

"C'mon, Walker! I do her Chemistry homework. I could tell her that I'll stop doing it for her if she says anything mean about you."

"You'd do that for me?"

He looked at her eyes as they lit up and her small smile. God…she was so perfect. "I'd do anything for you."

Sarah blushed, and he cursed himself. He really did not mean to say that. The words just spilled out of his mouth! But Sarah just reached up and straightened his necktie. "Thanks," she said. "Then save me a dance?"

It was Chuck's turn to blush, but thankfully, he could just blame it on the temperature inside the gym. "Are you sure about that? I'll probably step all over your toes."

"Naw, you'll do fine," she replied. "And yeah, I'm sure. Next slow song, dance with me? I mean," Sarah began, shrugging, "you know, it's our last homecoming before we graduate, so…"

Jill was going to be so pissed, he knew, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah. Okay."

"Phat!" she exclaimed, grinning. "And you're still going to go to the kegger, right?"

He frowned. He really didn't want to go to a party where he didn't know anyone but Sarah. They were _her_ friends—not his. Plus, all of them thought he was the biggest loser in the world.

She seemed to read his mind, because she said, "Don't worry, Chuck. I'll be with you."

And there she was with her super pretty eyes and her super pretty smile and her super pretty face and her super pretty dress. He just couldn't say no to her. "Fine. I'll go. But Jill can't go. She's got a curfew, so I might be a bit late."

At that, she grinned even wider. "Oh, she can't? That's a shame." She didn't sound so upset about it. "Well, after you drop her off, just go to Kowalski's place on Chestnut."

Behind Sarah, Jill was walking toward them with two cups of punch in her hands. Since she didn't know that he had been invited to the party later, Chuck quickly nodded to Sarah and smiled at Jill. "Hey, thanks!" he said, taking a cup and turning back to Sarah. "You want a sip?"

Sarah's eyes shifted from the cup to Jill. Grinning widely, she took the cup from Chuck's hand. "Yeah, thanks!"

Chuck smiled and turned back to Jill while Sarah took a drink. Jill was frowning slightly, and he couldn't fathom why. It was freaking hot in the gym, and he was just trying to make sure that his friend was hydrated. There was no need for Jill to be jealous. If he was being honest with himself, Jill's random Rancor moments were starting to get annoying.

Seriously, Sarah had been his friend since they were in training diapers! Plus, she had a boyfriend, so he really couldn't understand why Jill would be jealous. But then again, he wasn't a girl, and he was smart enough to know that girls were from a whole other world, so Jill probably had some awfully complicated reasons.

To be a good boyfriend, Chuck took Jill's free hand. Another song, Spice Girls' _Wannabe,_ began playing. Again, it was, in Chuck's opinion, a song that was impossible to dance to. Ignoring that fact, he asked, "You wanna dance?"

Jill nodded and proceeded to drag Chuck away, but he pulled back a bit and turned back to Sarah. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Next slow song, okay?"

"Okay," he replied with a grin, as he allowed Jill to pull him away.

When they got to the middle of the dance floor, Chuck was ready to glue his elbows to his ribcage once more, but he caught an annoyed look radiating off his date's face.

"So Sarah wants you to dance with her?" she asked, no, she demanded.

He fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Yep," he replied, but quickly added, "I mean, it's our last homecoming before graduation, and you know…we've been friends for a million years, so…"

"Hm," she puffed, frowning. "Well, if you guys were going to dance, I don't know why you didn't just come here together, then."

"C'mon, Jill," said Chuck, a little frightened, but grateful at the same time. This song was terrible, and he'd look like a huge idiot if he danced to this. "It's not like that. Sarah and I are friends. That's all we ever were, and that's all we ever will be."

She didn't look quite satisfied.

"Hey," he said, taking her hands in his. "I asked you out because I wanted to go out with you. You're awesome, and I like you."

"Really?" She was trying not to look pleased, but Chuck could tell that she was.

And he _was_ being honest. Jill was fun to be around. They had a lot of things in common, and whenever they didn't have anything to talk about, they could just play Nintendo. She was very pretty, smart, nerdy, and funny. Even with her weird jealousy issues toward Sarah, he still liked her.

So he nodded, and with that, she seemed content. With her frown forming into a grin, and his hands still in hers, she stepped up close to him. Again, they were both trying to find their rhythm to yet another terrible song, _Barbie Girl_ by Aqua.

* * *

Earlier, she had noticed something as she watched Chuck and Jill dancing together. Actually, she had noticed two things. The first was that Jill was just as bad as dancing as Chuck was. The second, and the more important thing she had noticed, was that they didn't seem to care just how ridiculous they looked. Not only that, but no one around them seemed to care. Everyone was just happily minding their own business.

So she had wondered why anyone else would care if she danced with Chuck? Everyone knew that they were friends, and there was nothing in the rule book that said that friends can't dance with each other.

That was why she asked him to dance with her earlier. Because, really, did it matter even _if_ people judged her? It was just a dance, after all.

_Foolish Games_ by Jewel started to play. Bryce was still in the restroom, and from across the dance floor, her eyes met Chuck's. She saw Chuck pardoning himself from Jill, and she guessed that he must have smooth talked her into letting him dance with her. Sarah watched as he shuffled through the crowd toward her.

"Hi," he said when he finally reached her.

Suddenly, she was nervous. "Hey."

They stood awkwardly for a moment, and finally, Sarah made the first move. She stepped up close to him, and wrapped her arms behind his neck. Chuck froze. His mind seemed to have broken at the scent of her sweet perfume. So Sarah unwrapped her arms from behind his neck, and she grabbed his hands. With a smile and a wink, she placed his hands on her hips, and wrapped her arms around him again.

Everyone in the gym seemed to have disappeared, or maybe she didn't care about them whispering about how the hot chick was dancing with the loser. It was just the two of them and Jewel's song.

She rested her head against his chest and breathed him in. "You're wearing cologne," she teased.

He chuckled nervously. "Yeah. Uh…is it too much?"

"Nope. You smell good."

"Well, that's good," he said, sounding relieved. "And it's also good that they're actually playing a decent, albeit, depressing slow song. I was thinking they were going to play that _Space Jam_ song about flying."

Sarah laughed. "Yeah," she agreed. "This DJ kind of sucks, don't you think?"

"Totally. I was thinking that all night, actually. We probably would have been better off with Morgan's band."

With a giggle, she looked up at Chuck. "So how'd you convince Jill to let you dance with me?"

His smile faltered a bit, which was quite discomforting to Sarah. "I told her the truth."

"Which is?"

"That we're best friends," he said with a shrug. "And that is all that we ever will be."

A painful lump formed in her throat. And for some reason, those words that spilled out of Chuck's mouth hit her hard. It hurt. Again, she rested her head against his chest, hoping that the tears wouldn't form.

Jewel was right, she decided. She and Chuck had been playing some foolish games, and damn it, they were starting to tear her apart. But she could fix that, she knew.

"Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you happy with being just…_friends_?"

She was too afraid to pull away and look up at him, so she couldn't see the look on his face.

"Why wouldn't I be happy with that?" he asked.

She sighed. Chuck obviously didn't get her point.

* * *

**Kowalski's Kegger**

It was the apocalypse. It had to be. Guys were yelling, girls were crying, people were vomiting. Sometime after dropping Jill off at her house, a government chemical probably leaked a block away from Kowalski's house. That would explain the screaming, the crying, and the vomiting.

Cautiously, Chuck stepped out of his father's old, 1968 Mustang that he was allowed to drive for the night, and a thought occurred to him. What if some drunken kid did something to the car? So Chuck got back into the Mustang, and he drove it down the street. It would be safe there, he decided as he walked back toward Kowalski's house.

When he got to the driveway, filled with drunken teenagers, Chuck sidestepped Kowalski, the shortest defensive lineman on the football team that stood at five feet six inches, but weighed close to 300 pounds, who was tipping over a bottle of tequila, screaming, "This one's for you, Biggie Smalls!" He made his way into the house where loud rap music was playing.

Someone is obviously a fan of East Coast hip hop, Chuck thought. It didn't really make sense, seeing as they lived in California, but he learned that not too many things made sense in this world.

Just as Chuck was about to walk into the house, the person whom he had came here for staggered out with a very disgusted look on her face. Instead of greeting her right away, Chuck just smiled as Sarah, rosy-cheeked, murmured, "God, it smells like ass and nachos in there," to herself.

While Chuck grimaced at the thought, Sarah noticed him. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she inhaled a deep breath.

"Chuck!" she cried, flinging her arms tightly around him. "You came!"

"I told you I would," he said, amused by how happy Sarah was to see him.

She smacked his shoulder a bit roughly. "You took _forever_ to get here!" She frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. Even though he knew she was annoyed, that didn't change the fact that she looked kind of cute. "It's a total sausage fest in there! Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"Like Oktober Fest?" he joked. He hoped that the joke made sense. The Germans did like their sausage and beer, and seeing as how they were at a kegger, and Sarah had mentioned sausage (though she totally meant something different), he thought the joke made sense.

He was reassured when Sarah looked momentarily confused, but after a second, she burst into laughter. Sarah clutched onto Chuck's arm, trying to catch her balance and her breath. Chuck could smell the alcohol on her, and he frowned, wondering how much she had drunk tonight.

Finally, she composed herself, but she was still grinning crookedly at him. "You're so funny, Chuck. And cute. You're really cute!" With that, she pinched his cheeks. "Look at how cute little Chucky is! Beep, beep!" she cried as she tapped his nose twice with her finger.

Chuck laughed. "How much did you have to drink?"

"Um…" Sarah trailed off and scrunched her face. Then, she stretched her arms apart. "This many."

"So you drank a lot?"

"Actually, this many," she said, holding her forefinger and her thumb about an inch apart. She broke into a fit of giggles and fell into Chuck.

He was just going to guess that she drank a lot. "Uh…do you want to go back inside?"

"There's so many guys in there!" she exclaimed, looking up at him again with her eyes wide open. "Like…they were all trying to make me play Truth or Dare and Spin the Bottle and stuff…I was like no! And then…and then…and then this guy was like, 'Hey, do a keg stand!' And I was like, 'You just want to see my ass, since I'm wearing a dress, so no!' Because I have a nice butt, and I think a lot of guys want to see it. Excuse me," she added after she let out a tiny burp. "And yeah, I was like, 'No one's seeing my ass tonight! No thank you!'"

Apart from feeling annoyed at the fact that the guys in the house were trying to take advantage of Sarah, Chuck was proud of his friend. She seemed to be pretty intoxicated, but she still had the self respect not to act like most of the other girls around their age when she was drunk. "Good for you," he said, patting her head.

"Do you think I have a nice ass?"

Chuck coughed. To say that he hadn't noticed Sarah's…er…_assets_ would have been a lie. But to actually admit that he thought that she had a nice bottom would make things awkward, wouldn't it? Even if she was drunk and currently turning around to show it off.

Trying not to stare, Chuck decided to change the subject. "Where's Bryce?"

Sarah's face fell just for the tiniest fraction of a second before she shrugged. "He had to go home because he has a bad case of the squirts. I told him that going to a Mexican restaurant before the dance was a bad idea, but did he listen? No, sir!"

"Well, that's a shame. I'm sorry he wasn't here to keep you company."

"I don't care. Hey!" Sarah's face lit up again. "Do you want a drink? I could go inside real quick and get you a beer!"

Chuck shook his head. "I'm driving my dad's Mustang, so I shouldn't drink."

Sarah didn't seem to hear him as she was focusing on his hair instead, with her mouth slightly open. Her expression seemed like she had never seen hair before. Slowly, she reached up, grabbed a lock of his hair, pulled it gently, and let it go. "Boi-yoi-yoi-yoing!" she exclaimed giggling at how his hair curled up again.

She repeated that three times. Each of those three times, she would burst into laughter. Finally, she cleared her throat and looked at him. "So do you want a drink? I could go inside and get you a beer."

Chuck raised an eyebrow. "You already asked me that."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think I did." She brought scratched her chin, looking lost in thought.

"Oh, you did."

"Huh…and what did you say?"

"I told you that I'm driving my dad's car tonight, so I shouldn't drink."

She gasped. "You have your dad's car?"

"Yeah, he let me borrow it."

"Did you…did you bring any mixtapes?"

He nodded.

Sarah grabbed his hand and pulled him down the driveway. "Man, I want some French Toast!"

"You want me to take you to Denny's?" asked Chuck. This was by far the weirdest experience he had ever shared with Sarah.

"Why would I want to go to Denny's?"

Chuck opened his mouth to respond, but he decided not to. Apparently, Sarah had ADD when she was drunk.

"I want to listen to some good music! Like…they played the worst songs in the world at the dance tonight!"

Chuck nodded in agreement as Sarah continued to pull him down the street. Suddenly, she stopped. Letting go of his hand, she ran her hand up along his, sending shivers up his arm. She stopped at his wrist, and held his calculator watch up to her face.

"You like nerdy girls, right, Chuckles?" she asked softly.

Wow, she was all over the place tonight, he thought. "Well, I don't know, uh…"

"You do. That's why you're dating Jill. Because she's nerdy, and you're a nerd." She must have seen has face falling, for she quickly added, "But it's cute! You're so cute, Chuck!"

"Uh…thanks?" he offered.

"Seriously. You, young man—"

"I'm older than you."

"—are cute." Still holding onto his wrist, she nodded at her own statement. "Anyway. You're dating Jill because you guys are both cute nerds, right?"

"Well, we _do_ have a lot in common," he mumbled.

"And Jill is cute too. She's pretty!" Sarah rambled on. "She has good facial structure. Like…her cheeks could cut glass!"

"Yeah, Jill's pretty," he agreed. She also had nice facial structure too.

"Yeah, and she's a cute nerd, like you," Sarah added again. "But has she ever done anything this nerdy?"

For a second, Chuck thought Sarah was going to eat his watch. But instead, she pushed a couple of buttons before she said, "Rangers! There's a gross monster attacking the city! We need your help!" She made a couple of beeping noises. "We're on it, Zordon!"

She looked at Chuck with a proud expression on her face. "Pretty nerdy, right?"

Chuck bit his lip, trying to hold in his laughter. Okay, what Sarah just did? It was unbelievably adorable, but he just couldn't hold in his laugh. "Yes," he finally said, catching his breath. "That was pretty nerdy."

"Yay!" Sarah clapped her hands and wrapped her arms around him again. "Remember that one time?"

"Yes. I totally remember that one time," Chuck deadpanned as he walked backwards, half carrying, half dragging Sarah.

"Man," said Sarah with a chuckle, "I'm such an airhead. Anyway, that one time, when you gave the guys on the basketball team your lunch money for, like, months so none of them would ask me to the dance?"

Chuck grimaced at the thought.

"Because you wanted to ask me, right?" she asked.

"Yeah." He felt a tug at his chest when he remembered how Sarah had told him that she just wanted to be friends. Even though he was only in middle school, it still hurt to think about.

"That was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done," said Sarah, the most clarity in her voice since he had gotten to the part. It caused Chuck's heart to jumpstart into a new gear.

As she stepped closer to him, not breaking eye contact, he thought he was going to get a heart attack. Their faces were close. He could count the pale freckles around her pale nose. Just as Sarah proceeded to move closer, they both jumped back in surprise when a car whizzed by, honking its horns.

Chuck watched as the car, a blue Toyota pickup, sped down the street. He was annoyed, because he knew what Sarah was about to do. She was going to kiss him. Although, at the same time, he was grateful that the truck full of drunk kids drove by. Sarah was drunk. It would have been an asshole move for him to let her kiss him. There was also the fact that he was dating Jill. But still…he was a tad bit annoyed.

When he turned back to Sarah, she was staring at the sidewalk, one hand holding her hair back, and breathing heavily. She stumbled a bit, and he reached out to grab her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She swallowed and nodded her head before she looked up at him with another grin. "I'm fine."

Again, she took Chuck's hand and led him to his car, humming a song that must have made up on the spot (there really wasn't a melody, so it was quite the compliment that Chuck called it a song). Sarah leaned against the hood as Chuck went into the driver's side to turn on the tape deck. He remembered how she said she wanted to listen to music.

As he stepped back out of the car, he saw that Sarah was on all fours on top of the hood, grinning at him. "Chuck! Check this out!" she whipped her hair around. "I'm that chick from those White Snake videos!"

Chuck watched in amusement as Sarah sloppily tried to imitate the blonde woman from the White Snake music videos that he and Sarah saw when they were kids. Sarah giggled at herself as she whipped her hair across Chuck's face.

"Pretty sexy, right?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Chuck laughed, and he deadpanned, "Definitely."

Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. She retched forward a bit. Chuck knew what was coming. He was there all those times when Mrs. Walker got morning sickness. He quickly pulled Sarah off the hood of his dad's car just in the nick of time. His eyes were clamped shut. He tried not to breathe. Ignoring the terrible _thwap_ of the vomit hitting the ground, Chuck held Sarah's hair back.

Like any good friend would.

* * *

She was so damn hot.

Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her stomach hurt…hell! Even her damn hair seemed to hurt! How much did she drink last night?

Sarah whimpered as she attempted to kick her blankets off. Why did it feel like the sheets weighed a million pounds?

She wanted to cry. She just hurt so much, and her head felt so heavy. It was a frightening thought, knowing that her neck would snap if she tried to get out of bed, because of how heavy her head was. And her bladder felt heavy as well.

"Uh-oh…"

This wasn't the time to be afraid about snapping her neck. She didn't care about that anymore. All she cared about now was relieving her bladder from this terrible pain and weight. Taking a deep breath, she rolled out of her bed. Her legs didn't cooperate correctly, and she fell on the floor with a loud thud.

"Ow!" she whined.

This time, she did cry. A few tears fell from her eyes. Again, her eyes burned, so she cried harder. Alcohol was a son of a bitch, she decided. If Sarah had it her way, she would condemn it to the deepest, harshest part of hell.

And why was her mouth dry?

Oh, dear Lord…she was dying, wasn't she?

Suddenly, she found that she was in the bathroom. When the hell did that happen? Her mind was blown! She was so confu—

She let out a happy sigh.

The pain went away. The only thing she felt now was internal relief, and it felt damn good.

She chuckled softly, her eyes half shut, but then she grimaced at the pain in her head. It hurt to laugh.

Because she felt so heavy, she shut her eyes, and decided to sit on the toilet just for a bit longer, even though she was done with her lady business.

It's so warm in here, she thought. And it was humid—her eyes snapped open as she heard a high pitched squeak coming from the bathtub across from her.

What was going on? She was the only person in this house that used this bathroom. Suddenly, the shower curtain flew open, and she saw it. She saw _him_!

Chuck stood in the shower, fully nude, as he reached out for a towel. For just _one_ second, Sarah noticed that Chuck…well…wow. First of all, he was quite toned. Secondly, he was very well—

"Oh my God!" she squealed when she realized that her pants were down at her knees, _and_ she was still on the toilet.

Chuck looked up in surprise, and he let out a high pitched scream.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so I have some explaining to do. For a long time, I was juggling school, with two jobs. That's why I haven't been updating. So I apologize for that. I know how frustrating it is when you really get into a piece of writing but the author doesn't update for years. So yes. I am really sorry about that.

Also, I don't know when I'll be finished with the next chapter of **Roads**. I have started it, yes, but it's a very difficult chapter to write after a few months of not writing. So I'm sorry for you **Roads** fans out there that I can't give you a definite date as to when it will be posted.

I've been reading through some of the old reviews again, and I've noticed that a couple of people missed some details in **Roads**. The first one is that the NSA agent had purposely shot Chuck. Now, that's probably my fault, as I reread that scene a few days ago, and found it very vague. But anyway, the NSA agent in chapter 10 didn't purposely shoot Chuck. The bullet was meant for Sarah, but Chuck walked in front of it by accident.

I just thought I should clear that up.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of **Lights**. It was fun writing again, and I'm slowly building up my writing mojo. Hopefully, I'll have more free time coming up so that I could finish the next chapter of **Roads**. And since I left this at a cliffhanger, I should probably try to update this one soon as well, right? ;)

Thank you for reading, and for your patience. Oh, and of course, for your reviews! There's nothing better for a Fanfic writer than reviews!


	3. Caught With Your Pants Down

**A/N:** Thank you, everyone who left splendid reviews! You guys are awesome! Also, another thanks to **mxpw** for being an awesome sounding board, and giving me a lot of advice for this chapter! Heads up, while this is a lighter, more comical story than **Roads**, this chapter is a little dark for a story like this one. But it's still sprinkled with awkward moments, that I really love writing. Come on, guys, it's not high school unless there are awkward moments between the guy/girl you like and yourself! :) Enjoy!

* * *

**8 Hours Ago**

After sneaking (very stealthily, if he may be so bold) a passed out Sarah into her house, and sneaking back out of the house, Chuck sat in the driver's seat of his father's Mustang.

It had been a confusing night. He didn't know what to think of any of it. Sarah was just drunk. That was all. According to movies, some people were extremely pleasant to be around when they were intoxicated, but others were not so pleasant. Maybe Sarah just fell under the extremely pleasant category.

But…

_Are you happy with being just…_friends_?_

What the heck was _that_ supposed to mean? Unless someone had spiked the punch (highly unlikely, seeing as Chuck had drank an insane amount of punch), Sarah had been sober when she asked him that.

Chuck sighed. He turned the key in the ignition, and made his way home. He was just going to have to call Ellie in the morning and see what she thought.

As he shifted into first gear, he slowly let off the clutch and gave the car a little gas. And he made his way home, trying not to read too much into Sarah's behavior that night. He failed. He pulled up into his driveway, put on the brakes, and stepped out of the car.

"Hey, Charlie," a voice called.

Chuck jumped back and let out a yelp before he saw Mr. Walker coming toward him. What was he doing here at this hour?

"Mr. Walker?" asked Chuck. "Is everything all right?"

The older man sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with hand. "Uh…there's really no easy way of saying this."

Chuck frowned. "Did something happen to Sarah?" Oh God, he thought. What if Sarah was drowning in her vomit like so many of those musicians that he saw on _Behind the Music_? It didn't even occur to him that it had been only less than five minutes since he had last seen her.

Mr. Walker shook his head. "Sarah's fine." Again, he sighed. "Listen, uh…your old man, he used to work for the government. I don't know exactly what he did. That's all he told me."

Chuck raised an eyebrow. His father never worked for the government. He was, and always has been, a computer science engineer for Kore Techtronics.

"A long time ago, your old man asked me and Dana, in case something happened, to take care of you and your sister. He gave me this key." Mr. Walker handed Chuck a brass key, "It's for a safe at Ambassador Bank. He left you and Ellie some money just in case."

Chuck just stared at Mr. Walker, who looked very uncomfortable but sympathetic at the same time, not completely understanding what was going on.

"Dana and I both agreed that you should stay with us," Mr. Walker continued. "We'll both take care of you, son. You're going to be all right." With that, he placed a comforting hand on Chuck's shoulder.

Everything fell on him at once. "My dad…_left_?"

He couldn't remember the last time he had even seen his father. Chuck had asked if he could borrow the Mustang through his father's office door, and that was the last time he had spoken to him. But as far as seeing him, face to face, Chuck couldn't remember.

"I'm sorry, son," said Mr. Walker.

"He left?" His voice was shaking, and his throat burned.

He remembered how his mother had left him and Ellie as well. Out of the blue, just like his father had left.

Mr. Walker pulled Chuck into a hug. "It's going to be all right, Charlie. We'll take care of you, and we'll make sure Ellie's okay too."

"How could he just…?"

Chuck had just received a letter from Stanford asking him to apply. There was no way he could get a full ride scholarship for a school like that! He had been hoping, after years of neglect, that his father would help pitch in for tuition. Now…it just seemed…_hopeless_.

"I can't speak for your old man, Charlie," said Mr. Walker, "but sometimes, a man's gotta make a tough decision. I'm sure he has his reasons. But listen to me, son." Chuck looked Mr. Walker in the eye. "I promise you, you're going to be all right, okay? You're going to stay with us now."

"Mr. Walker, I can't—" he tried to say, but Mr. Walker held up a hand.

"You're still a minor, kid. If you don't wanna stay with us, that's fine, but I'm going to have to call Child Services and let 'em know what happened." He gave Chuck a small grin. "You know, I _am_ part of the Neighborhood Watch. So if you _really_ don't want to stay with us, it'll only be a matter of time before you end up in foster care, and none of us want that, now, do we?"

"But…" Chuck knew that the Walkers were having a hard time lately, what with their business slowing down, and with Conner's doctor bills for his monthly tuning for the hearing aids. He didn't want to be another burden on them. "I can't…"

"Yeah, you can, Charlie." Mr. Walker clapped him on the back. "You've always been a part of our family, anyway. At least, with you there, that Bryce kid that my daughter thought would be a good idea to date won't be over as much. Plus, Sarah likes to spend time with you more than she does with him, anyway. And Conner likes you a bunch. He's always askin' where you are every night at dinner. Dana thinks you're the sweetest kid, and I think you're not bad at all, considering you're seventeen, and most kids act like morons when they're your age. You'd be doin' us a favor, Charlie, by staying with us. Now, let's go get some clothes, and I'll bring you back here in the mornin' for the rest of your stuff. How's that sound?"

He found that he didn't have the strength to argue. He was so tired of everything that his parents had put him through. He was tired of the years of neglect, and apparently, the years of lies. Maybe his mother worked for the government, and that was why she had left all those years ago. He couldn't understand why neither of them would tell him that. And after that, he had tried—he had hoped—to connect with his father. After all, he was the only parent Chuck had had at that point. Now, _both_ his parents were gone.

And he was just so tired.

* * *

**8 Hours Later**

As she sat next to Chuck, the same Chuck she had seen butt naked just under an hour ago, at the dining table, ignoring the pancakes in front of her, Sarah wondered what dying was like. Surely it couldn't be any worse than how embarrassed and awkward she felt at this moment. She had seen Chuck naked. It wouldn't have been so bad, really, if she hadn't been caught on the toilet as well. In fact, if she wasn't sitting lazily on the toilet, she might have enjoyed it a bit.

Because a naked Chuck…? Well, all she could say to that was _wow_!

Shortly after Chuck's high-pitched, girly wail, her mother had yelled from down the hall, "Sarah! I told you that if one of your soccer teammates were going to spend the night, then you had to let me know before—" And then her mother had seen both Sarah _and_ Chuck screaming. One was fully nude; the other was caught with her pants down.

Now, as she, her family, and Chuck sat at the dining table, Sarah had to endure further embarrassment by her father. He had not said a word, her father. Instead, after every other bite of his pancake, he would look between her and Chuck and bite his bottom lip, trying not to laugh. Sarah counted the number of times her father held in a snort or a guffaw. It was five.

On top of the excruciating embarrassment of everything, Sarah was still in excruciating pain from the hangover.

Chuck wasn't eating either. Wait, she realized, why was he even here?

It wasn't that she minded too much, but apparently, if Chuck was taking a shower at her house, then he must have spent the night. Maybe he was too tired to drive home last night, after he had dropped her off? No, because he lived only a block away. It was literally a thirty-five second drive to his house from hers.

"So, uh…did you kids have fun at the dance?" asked her mother, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

Sarah and Chuck both nodded, neither of them looking up from their still full plates. Her father let out another snort, at which her mother shot him a nasty look, trying to shush him. But that only made him let out a booming laugh.

Sarah cringed in her seat.

"Gerald, shush!" Her mother smacked her husband upside the head. "You're starting to remind me of Bry—those…teenagers," she added lamely.

If it didn't hurt to move, or if she wasn't so embarrassed, then Sarah would have shot her parents a dirty look. But really, she didn't care anymore. Yeah, her father was acting like a douche, aka, Bryce.

"Speaking of dumb teenagers," said her father, wiping his mouth with a napkin, "How much did you have to drink last night, Angel Hair?"

She looked up too fast. God that hurt. "What?"

Her father rolled his eyes. "Darlin', I wasn't born yesterday, so quit lookin' like you got caught with your pants down. Wait, you did!" He laughed at his own joke. Her own mother was covering her face with her napkin. Even Conner was laughing! But he probably had his own reasons for laughing.

The only people at the table that didn't laugh were her and Chuck. Chuck was making a high-pitched, whining noise, while Sarah just wanted to die. Really, it wasn't like she was asking for too much, right?

"Anyway," Her father cleared his throat. "Your eyes are bloodshot—" Were they really? And she was letting herself be seen by Chuck in this state? "—and quite frankly, and I mean this in the most loving way, you look like shit, darlin'."

"Food poisoning," Chuck chimed up out of nowhere.

"What?"

He cleared his throat, and he looked up. Sarah could tell, by the way he was focusing straight ahead, that he was determined not to make eye contact with her. Wow…just how terrible did she look?

"Bryce took her to El Mariachi, and Sarah was complaining that she wasn't feeling too well."

Sarah stared at Chuck in disbelief. He had just _lied_ for her! Albeit, the lie was lame, but still…it was kind of sweet.

Her father just nodded. "Right, well, then maybe she shouldn't have drank if she felt bad to begin with, right, Charlie?"

Chuck blushed and he looked down at his plate again.

Her father turned back to her. "Anyway, darlin'. You know the rules. First, you didn't call us to let us know that you were going to be out late. Second, you know you're not supposed to be drinkin'. And since I know that high school isn't high school without goin' to a few parties where alcohol is involved, I'm gonna be nice only ground you for a month."

"A month?" That was totally unfair!

"Angel Hair, be grateful it's only a month. If it wasn't for your mom, you'd be grounded for a year."

"Dad, come on!" she cried, ignoring the painful protests from her head. "My birthday is less than a month away!"

"I'll let you go out for your birthday, then. There, that's settled." Her father looked at Chuck's plate and moved his eyes toward Chuck. "You should eat, Charlie."

He placed his fork down and shook his head. "I don't have much of an appetite, to be honest."

_Great, my vagina made him lose his appetite._

"You sure?" asked her father with a frown.

"You should really eat, Chuck," said her mother. She looked as though she wanted to reach across the table to start cutting Chuck's pancakes into tiny pieces, but she hesitated.

Sarah glanced over at Chuck, who was biting his bottom lip. "Thank you, but I'm fine."

What was wrong with him? He looked so…_defeated_. Surely, he couldn't be _that_ embarrassed over what had happened earlier that morning. In Sarah's opinion, she had it worse. At the very least, though, she was just glad she wasn't going Number Two. That would have been a hundred times worse.

"Okay, then," said her father. "You want to go get the rest of your things before I head out to open the shop?"

Sarah frowned, looking between everyone around the table. "The rest of his—"

She met her mother's eyes, and saw her shaking her head. What was going on?

"Sarah, help me clear the table, please." Her mother gave her a pointed look.

If it were any other day, Sarah would have told her mother, "Do it yourself, woman," but not today. Without protest, and pushing aside the excruciating hangover, Sarah reached over to Chuck's side of the table and grabbed his plate.

She followed her mother into the kitchen. Handing the stack of plates to her mother, she asked, "What did Dad mean when he asked Chuck if he wanted to get the rest of his stuff?"

Her mother sighed and shook her head. "Chuck's father left last night."

"Where?" she asked, thinking that Mr. Bartowski had just left for a trip. She couldn't understand why her mother would look saddened by this. She knew money was tight lately, but back before Chuck was dating stupid Jill, he used to come over all the time.

Her mother just shrugged. "After Chuck's mother left…"

Sarah listened to her mother, and with every sentence uttered, she felt her heart breaking for Chuck. She knew that Chuck and his father were never close, but still, she couldn't even begin to imagine how terrible he must be feeling right now. She remembered how when his mother left, Chuck wouldn't speak for days. It was going to be just as bad, if not worse, now that his father had left as well.

Suddenly, she wasn't so angry over that fact that she was grounded. She looked behind her at Chuck, who was still sitting at the table, smiling forcedly at her little brother. When she turned back to her mother, she saw that she was staring at Chuck and Conner as well. Considering what Chuck was going through, Sarah was just glad that she had her parents.

"Mom?" Sarah began.

"Yes?"

"Would you ever just leave me and Conner if something happened to you?"

Her mother shook her head and reached over to brush aside a few strands of Sarah's hair that were in her face. "I promise you that if something ever happened where your father and I would have to leave, we'd take you with us. I can't imagine a life without you or your brother."

She smiled weakly at her mother and gave her a hug. "Love you, Mom."

"I love you too, sweetie."

As she felt the warmth and comfort from her mother's hug, an indescribable pain welled in her chest. It wasn't from the hangover. Instead, it was from knowing that her friend hasn't received the same warm and comforting hug from his own mother in years.

* * *

Sarah's father was at their sporting goods shop, and her mother had taken Conner with her to Mrs. Fields' (no, Mrs. Fields didn't bake cookies) baby shower. Chuck had mumbled something about going for a walk and looking for a job, and he left Sarah alone at her house for the last two hours. Even though she was grounded, and her parents had told her that she couldn't leave the house, Sarah had offered to go with him to keep him company. He declined.

After taking four Advil, drinking lots of water, and going to the restroom with the door locked this time, Sarah left her house. Chuck said he didn't want to go back to get the rest of his things today, and she understood that he probably didn't want to go back to his house right after his father had just left him. It probably would have brought back some crappy memories.

She didn't care about the consequences if her parents found out that she left her house. She didn't care that she would probably be grounded longer. All she knew was that no matter how upset Chuck was, video games always made him feel better. And he needed his bass guitar, his C.D.s, and he definitely needed that _TRON_ poster.

Not paying attention to just how long she had been at it, Sarah was sure she had brought everything that Chuck needed, and she was setting up the guest room to how she believed he would like it. Even though she was sure that the sheets on the bed were still clean, she replaced them with his _Star Wars_ sheets. Not only was her best friend the biggest nerd in the world, apparently, he was still twelve.

She stepped back to look at her work. It wasn't so bad, if she said so herself.

The phone began to ring, so Sarah ran over to the living room to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe."

Sarah tried not to groan at the sound of Bryce's voice. "Hey. What's up?"

"You want to come over? My parents aren't home."

_Definitely not_. "I can't. I'm grounded."

"How'd you get grounded?" asked Bryce.

"My dad figured out that I was drinking last night."

"You went to Kowalski's kegger without me?"

"Yeah," she replied bluntly. "It's not my fault you got sick."

"Yeah, but—"

"Did you expect me to just go home, and cry over the fact that you thought it would be a good idea to eat cheap Mexican food before a dance?"

Bryce sighed. "I guess not. It would have been pretty funny, though."

She rolled her eyes and looked at the clock. Chuck had been gone for almost three hours, and she was beginning to worry. The kid was probably depressed beyond belief. Damn it, why did she let him leave? She should have…she didn't know what exactly she should have done.

Sarah remembered that she was on the phone. "What?" she asked distractedly. "Never mind. Hey, I gotta go. Something is up with Chuck, and I want to go make sure he's okay."

"Wait, so you're grounded, and that's why you can't come over, but you're still going to go out to see what's wrong with that loser?"

She bit back her retort with great effort. Taking a deep breath, she replied, "Yes. I'll explain it to you later, okay? I'm just worried about him. And don't call him a loser."

Instead of waiting for Bryce's reply, Sarah pressed the "Talk" button on the phone and placed it back down on the charger. Striding across the living room, she grabbed her keys and headed out the front door, not exactly knowing where she would go to look for Chuck.

Standing at the end of her driveway, ignoring the fact that it was quite chilly out for California, she began to think. Where would Chuck go when he was upset? For the most part, he was always a pretty happy guy, considering all of the terrible things that had happened to him. She rarely saw him upset. The last time she did was when she broke up with him after their middle school dance. God, she was so dumb back then. One could argue that she was dumb now, but that was beside the point.

Then, it hit her. When she had broken up with him, all those years ago, he was always at the park. That was going to be the first place she would go to look for him. If he wasn't there, then she would have to go to the mall to see if he was at the arcade.

Sarah saw him as she jogged over to the park. Chuck was sitting on one of the benches, elbows on his knees, palms covering his mouth, and eyes looking down at his feet. When she got closer, he didn't look up.

"Hey," she said, taking a seat next to him.

"Hi." Still, he did not look at her, but he did try to wipe his eyes subtly.

Sarah scooted closer to him. She had a couple of choices as to how to go about this soon-to-be conversation. There was the cliché approach where she asked him if he was all right, but of course he wasn't. So she decided to go with the second approach. "You owe me lunch tomorrow at school. I just thought I should let you know."

He sniffled and looked up from the ground. "Why?"

"Because you saw my good girl," she replied bluntly. "While most guys would probably have to buy me dinner _and_ take me to a movie, I'm making an exception for you, you big stud." She held her breath as she waited for Chuck's response.

"Oh, God," he said with a laugh. Sarah laughed along with him. "Okay, fine. But I am _really_ sorry about that, by the way."

"What do you have to be sorry for?" she asked in disbelief. It was just like him to apologize for something that wasn't his fault. "I was the one who was stupid enough to not notice the sound of running water."

"I should have locked the door."

"Meh, it's cool, Chuck."

"Well, still…" Chuck shrugged. "Just to let you know, I really didn't see anything."

Sarah giggled. "Liar."

"Okay, maybe I saw a little bit, but you saw _way_ more of me, so technically, I think you owe _me_ lunch."

"_No_…I was sitting on the toilet, so that's way more embarrassing than getting caught in the shower. So I win."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Everything's always a competition for you, isn't it?"

"Guilty." She grinned and gave him a wink. Bumping her shoulder into his, she asked, "Have you been looking for a job this whole time?"

"Not really," he replied. "I applied at the Buy More, but mostly, I just sat around here. I should have spent more time looking for a job, though."

Sarah frowned. "Why are you all of a sudden bent on getting a job? I know your dad left you some money."

"He did, but…I don't know. I can't—I know that your family has been having a bit of trouble lately, and—"

"Don't worry about that," she said. "Once my parents find a good healthcare program for Conner, we'll be fine."

"Yeah, but for now, I want to help you guys. I feel like I'm…in the way, you know?"

"But you're not in the way, and you're not going to be," she said firmly, squeezing his shoulder. "My parents love you. Seriously, they do. And Conner, he loves you too! Ever since you've been dating stup—Jill, and you stopped coming over every night, Conner would always ask me where you were. And I'm going to be living with my best friend, so yeah, I will never think you're in the way. You don't need to worry about us, okay? Just think about yourself. For once."

Chuck remained silent, just nodding his head for a moment. "Thanks," he finally said.

"No problem." Sarah leaned wrapped her arm around Chuck. The poor guy must have been freezing. So she leaned in closer, noticing that he smelled quite nice.

"Can I tell you something that might make me sound really selfish?" he asked after another comfortable moment of silence.

"Go ahead."

He sighed. "I'm not…well, I learned not to depend on my dad for too much, you know? He was never really there. But I always thought I could depend on him for college, you know? The other day, I got a letter from Stanford asking me to apply, and…I thought I could sort of rely on him to help out a bit. Money wise. And then he left, and it's like, the first thing I thought was, 'Well, I'm screwed.' Does that make me a bad person that I care more about the fact that I have no chance in hell to pay for Stanford than I care about my dad leaving?"

Sarah shook her head. "No. I don't think it does." Chuck just shrugged, so she added, "Hey, you're still going to be able to get into Stanford. You're the smartest guy at school. You're a shoe-in for valedictorian, you know that, right? I'll bet you ten bucks that you'll be able to get a scholarship." She held out her other hand.

Chuck stared at it hesitantly. "You really think that could happen?"

She nodded. "And if you mess up your grades on purpose, I'm not going to give you any money," she added with a smile, still holding out her hand. "Shake on it?"

"You're on, Walker," said Chuck, grinning and shaking her hand.

Grinning, Sarah leaned in closer to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "You're going to be all right, Chuck." When she pulled away, she saw Chuck blushing. "Hey, I have a surprise for you at home." She stood, grabbing his wrist and pulling him off the bench.

* * *

Sarah grinned as she led Chuck to his room. Her grin spread even wider as she saw the look on his face.

Chuck, wide-eyed, stared at the room. It was nearly identical to his room from his house. The _TRON_ poster hung next to the door, his stereo, along with his C.D.s and vinyl collection were all there, and the _Terminator_ and _Flaming Lips_ posters hung above the bed. Heck, even his _Star Wars_ sheets were spread out on the bed, and next to his bed was his bass guitar case.

He turned to her. "I've only been gone for, like, three hours."

"What can I say? I'm a magical girl, Chuck." She walked over to the stereo and powered it on. The last C.D. that he had left in the player, Neutral Milk Hotel's _On Avery Island_, began to play through the speakers. "I only went over to get your music, but I thought, 'Well, I'm already here, might as well get the rest of his stuff.'" She winked to let him know that she was just messing around.

"Wait…you don't have a car," he said, realizing. "You carried all this stuff here?"

"It wasn't that hard."

"But still, it must have taken you at least three trips."

Sarah just shrugged. "It's better than sitting around, feeling shitty about the monster hangover I had going on. It kept my mind off it. Oh, come out to the living room." She skipped, yes; she skipped, out of his room over to the living room. "I brought your video games too! But I didn't hook them up to the T.V. I don't know how."

Chuck stared at his collection of video game consoles; his Sega, the Nintendo, Genesis, Super Nintendo, and his Nintendo 64 were all laid down in a neat row in front of the television. Without thinking, he stepped up to Sarah and wrapped his arms around him. "You're the greatest, Sarah."

"Tell me something I don't know," she quipped, as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I just wanted to make sure you felt at home here, you know?"

In that moment, Chuck had never felt so grateful before. He knew, that if it was anyone other than Sarah in her situation, they would have pestered him, asking him if he was okay. But not Sarah. She knew him well enough to know how he felt, and for that he was grateful. He was even more thankful for the fact that he had someone like Sarah in his life.

He took a step back. "Seriously, Sarah. Thank you."

She waved off his comment. "It was nothing. Why don't you set up one of those," she gestured to the consoles, "and I'll grab us a slice of cheesecake? How does that sound?"

Although he wasn't in the mood for video games today, who was he to say no to a girl with a face like Sarah's? So he nodded, and she grinned in approval before she made her way to the kitchen. While she walked away, Chuck looked at the consoles. He couldn't repress his grin when he saw that Sarah had mixed up the cords to the wrong consoles. At least she had tried.

Just as Chuck finished hooking the Nintendo 64 up to the television, Sarah came back into the den carrying two plates of cheesecake. She handed him a plate, placed her own down on the coffee table, and she grabbed a controller.

Chuck's mouth dropped in surprise. Only once has Sarah tried to play a video game, and that was years ago. The end result was…well, in short, Chuck's Power Glove was in Gaming Heaven, now. "You want to play?"

"Yeah," she replied bluntly, unzipping his cartridge bag. "What's the game with that leprechaun that runs around with a sword and flute? You know…the one with the fairies?"

"_Zelda_," he replied, sitting down on the floor next to her. "And Link is not a leprechaun, he's a—"

"He's dressed in green and he wears a hat," she said, shoving the _Zelda_ cartridge into the slot. "That makes him a leprechaun." After she powered the console, she handed Chuck a controller.

"It's a one-player game," he said, placing the controller down.

"Really? _Lame_!" He expected her to hand him her controller, but she held onto it. "We'll take turns. You can play when I die."

"Okay, then," he said, taking a bite of his slice of cheesecake. Sarah wouldn't last five minutes into the game before she died. Or so he thought…

An hour and a half later, Sarah was still going strong. It was extremely unsettling, seeing Sarah in a trancelike state as she played. Every time Chuck would try to ask her how she was so good, or tell her that her cheesecake didn't look like cheesecake anymore, she would shush him.

"Yeah, I'm playing my flute, bitch!" she cried, bopping her head to the melody.

"Sarah, your cheesecake—"

"I don't care," she snapped.

Chuck jumped back a bit. "Okay."

Another thirty minutes passed when Sarah finally put the controller down and massaged her hand. Chuck took this opportunity to finally ask, "How'd you get so good when you've never played before?"

She shrugged as she looked disgustedly at her cheesecake. "I don't know. I was just doing whatever you did whenever you played."

"You pay attention whenever I play videogames?"

Sarah poked at her cheesecake with her fork as though expecting it to come alive before she looked up at Chuck. "Yeah, of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

A warm feeling spread throughout Chuck, but he didn't know why. He shrugged and took Sarah's cheesecake off the table. "Want another one?"

"Naw, I'm good," she replied with a grin. "I should really get started on my homework, you know?"

Chuck grimaced. "Gah…I really don't want to go to school tomorrow."

"Yeah. Me neither," she agreed. "But, hey, if you want, you should sit with me at lunch tomorrow. Or we could just walk around."

He opened his mouth to say that that would be great, but then he remembered Jill. With all of the events that had happened, he had totally forgotten about her! And they were supposed to meet at the arcade today! "That would be awesome, but I'm pretty sure Jill's going to be pretty mad at me for not calling her all day today."

Sarah gestured to the phone. "Call her right now."

He contemplated for a moment. Calling Jill was something he _should_ do, but he was still exhausted from everything that happened. His father left, Sarah saw him naked, and Sarah was good at _Zelda_. He didn't think he had enough strength to tell Jill all the reasons why he had not met her at the arcade today.

Tomorrow was going to be…not fun at all.

* * *

**A/N**: Thanks for reading, guys!

I'm going to try to attempt to finish Chapter 11 of **Roads**, but it's probably going to be awhile. I'm not happy with the stuff I have written, and I'm contemplating on starting it over.


	4. The 5 Stages of Teenage Grief

**A/N:** Thanks to **mxpw** for betaing this chapter and being my sounding board for not only this, but **Roads** and a new fic I'm working on. I should also thank him for the time that a lion escaped from the zoo, and it was about to eat me, but he destroyed it with his bare hands.  
Thanks to you for reading and for leaving wonderful reviews! I'll see you at the end!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything Chuck related, minus the DVDs and the Subway sandwich that I got way back in the day. It's gone now.

* * *

**Depression**

He woke up early that morning; 4:25 AM was when he decided not to bother falling back asleep. His dreams from the night before were depressing, to say the least. There was a dream where his parents were sipping drinks with tiny, colorful umbrellas that hung from the rims on a tropical island. Another, extremely random dream, where Sarah was getting married to Bryce was the last straw for Chuck. He really didn't know where the hell that dream came from, and why it would make him feel so upset. Sighing, he turned over on his stomach.

As he buried his face deep into his pillow, Chuck knew that today was going to be a horrible, terrible, no good kind of day.

He didn't want to deal with anything. His dreams had seriously hurt his feelings like there was no tomorrow, and then there was school. It was a place where Chuck felt really out of his element. For the most part, people ignored him, and that was probably worse than getting bullied. On occasion, he felt hurt and betrayed whenever Sarah didn't acknowledge him at school. He understood why, though. She was all that and a bag of chips. Guys worshipped the ground she walked on and girls wanted to be her. So he understood why, and at the very least, they spent a lot of time outside of school.

As for Chuck's situation at school, well, sometimes it seemed as though no one knew he existed. In reality, they did know who he was, but they didn't acknowledge him. Morgan used to be his only friend, other than Sarah, at school. However, after his parents had gotten a divorce, he moved to Burbank.

The rare occasions where someone other than Sarah acknowledged him were when Bryce and his buddies would call him "fart-knocker." What that meant, he didn't know. And there were other times where Carina would acknowledge him, but that was only for their chemistry homework.

"Oh, crap," he murmured.

He had forgotten to do Carina's lab report. Oh, well, it really wasn't his problem. She was fully capable of doing her own damn report. What made her time more valuable than his, anyway? He had had a terrible last couple of days. He shouldn't have to worry about some lab report for someone else. Yesterday, Sarah had told him, "Just think about yourself. For once."

So maybe he would.

Chuck slid out of bed. After glancing around the room that Sarah had decorated to be nearly identical to his old room, he let himself smile, and made his way toward the kitchen to get a glass of water. It was a bit too early to take a shower, as the bathroom was quite close to Sarah's room, and he'd probably wake her up. However, he seriously doubted that she would walk in on him again, but he made a mental note to lock the door when the time eventually came for him to shower.

"Hi, Chuck," a soft voice came from behind him.

He jumped a bit and turned. At first, he thought it was Sarah, but the voice came from Mrs. Walker. They really did look alike, Sarah and her mother, although Mrs. Walker was just a bit shorter than Sarah. But still, their faces were very similar.

"Hi, Mrs. Walker," he said, placing his cup down next to the sink. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

She shook her head and smiled. "I always wake up early every morning to get some painting done."

For reasons that were difficult to explain, Chuck felt a sharp pain in his chest upon hearing that. He had always known that Mrs. Walker was a great artist, and that that was what she had always wanted to do. Maybe it was the fact that she would always wake up early in the morning just to get about two hours of painting done. For the rest of her day, Chuck assumed that she would begin preparing breakfast for the family, get her children out of bed, clean the house, go to work, come home, prepare dinner, and make sure that Sarah had done her homework.

It hurt him to know that she only had two hours for herself all day. It made him resent his parents even more. If Mrs. Walker could take care of her children, why couldn't they?

So he nodded, not knowing exactly what to say.

"You want to see what I've been working on?" She nodded toward the door that led to the garage, where Chuck knew her studio was, and grinned.

Once more, Chuck nodded and followed Mrs. Walker into her studio.

"It's going to get better, you know," she said, opening the door.

"What is?"

Mrs. Walker turned on the lights in the garage, and he saw all the paintings and sketches that she had done over the years. Buildings, landscapes, pictures of her and her husband in their younger years, Sarah, Conner, and even some of Chuck and Ellie. Another lump formed in his throat, for yet another unknown reason.

"How you're feeling right now," she replied as she sat in front of a canvas covered in light pencil marks that he assumed would be painted over when the time came.

Chuck couldn't recognize what was going on in the light sketch. It looked like a man holding something (maybe an ice pack?) against his face and a woman staring timidly down at her cup.

He looked at Mrs. Walker who was grinning at him. "I'm serious, Chuck. I know you're hurting a lot right now, but things always have a way of getting better in the long run."

"Really?"

She nodded as she reached up to give him a tap on his nose with the end of a thin brush. "You can count on it, young sir."

A wave of warmth and appreciation overwhelmed him, and he couldn't stop the tears that began to fall. It was just too much to handle, the last day and a half. There were so many different things that ran through his mind—so many feelings. Mr. Walker's awkward, yet comforting offer of letting him know that Chuck was going to be safe; his father's departure, along with the feeling of abandonment; Sarah's comforting warmth as she had joked around with him at the park; the fear he couldn't explain; the overwhelming change of his situation; and now, Mrs. Walker was wrapping her arms tightly around him. It was too much.

Knowing that she woke up every morning just to have some time for herself so that she could paint, and knowing that she never once thought about leaving her family behind was too much to handle. He felt guilty, knowing that the Walkers had taken him in, despite their financial situation.

But as she gently cradled the back of his head with a hand, he automatically felt comforted. Neither of them said a word. The minutes went by, and Chuck began to calm down. He took a step back, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and sniffed. Mrs. Walker wiped her own eyes as well.

Slightly embarrassed, but knowing that they had come to an understanding of sorts, Chuck pointed to the canvas. "So what are you working on?"

She wiped her eyes with her pinky as she replied, "It's supposed to be the day I met Gerald."

"Oh." Chuck frowned as he stared at what he guessed was an ice pack pressing against Mr. Walker's face. "That's an ice pack?"

Mrs. Walker nodded and chuckled. "Yes it is," she replied. "That was an interesting day."

Chuck smiled politely, waiting for Mrs. Walker to continue.

"In short," she began, with another chuckle, and a slight hint of a blush, "someone stole my purse, and ran off with it. I chased after him. Gerald saw, tackled the thief, and got quite the shiner on his face. I was so grateful. I offered to get him a cup of coffee as a thank you. It didn't hurt that Gerald was extremely handsome, either."

Chuck laughed. "So that's how you and Mr. Walker met, huh?"

"In a nut-shell." She pointed to the canvas. "So that's us at the diner I took him to. It was a good day."

Chuck smiled appreciatively at the picture. "Well, I should let you get on with it, then. I'll just get an early start on getting ready for school."

"Okay, then," said Mrs. Walker, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll see you in a bit, Chuck."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

Before he left the garage, Chuck turned back to Mrs. Walker. "Thank you, Mrs. Walker. For…" he trailed off and shrugged, hoping she understood.

She held up a hand. "It's my pleasure, Chuck."

* * *

**Denial**

Sarah and Chuck walked to school in silence. She knew that school was the last place that Chuck wanted to be, and she couldn't, for the life of her, come up with a way to cheer him up. There was a point, earlier, where Sarah kept nudging Chuck with her elbow repeatedly. Although he was smiling and chuckling, she guessed that after awhile it annoyed him.

Suddenly, Chuck stopped.

"What's up?" she asked, stepping in front of him.

"Nothing," he replied, shooting her his usual half-grin. "I'm just psyching myself up."

She smiled. "You just want to play hooky today? Sneak off somewhere, see a movie, or maybe we can steal a car or seven?" She bit her bottom lip and wiggled her eyebrows, eliciting a chuckle from him.

"Oh, definitely," he quipped.

"But seriously," she said, pulling along Chuck as she walked backwards, "if you feel like you can't deal with your classes, or people, or whatever, just find me, and we'll just take a break at the library or something."

"Okay." He smiled and began to walk on his own.

When they reached school, Sarah saw Bryce storming over to them. Before she could comprehend what has happening, Bryce grabbed Chuck by the front of his shirt and shook him roughly.

"Bryce, what the hell?" cried Sarah, shoving him off Chuck.

He ignored her, and shrugged her hand off him, once again rounding up on Chuck, who looked more confused than terrified. "What were you doing with my girl?"

"What are you talking about?" she and Chuck asked in unison.

"Everyone that was at Kowalski's kegger saw you guys making out!"

If only, thought Sarah.

Chuck, however, just looked affronted. It was a bit unsettling, because for a moment, her crazy mind thought that Chuck was thinking that making out with her would be terrible. But she quickly understood why. He wasn't the kind of guy to make out with a drunk girl, even if she, like Sarah, wanted it.

"Yeah, and even though Sarah's grounded, she left the house to hang out with you yesterday!"

"She left her house because she was looking for me!" cried Chuck. "Listen—whoa!"

Bryce wasn't going to let Chuck talk, she realized, as, his face contorted in anger, he lunged toward Chuck. Sarah, again, shoved Bryce away. This time, her face was twisted menacingly. She grabbed a fistful of Bryce's shirt and stepped up close to him.

"If you so much as even flick a piece of dust off of Chuck, I swear to God, I'll kick your balls so hard, you're going to be sorry that you were born a man," she growled, feeling the rage flowing in her veins. "Chuck and I didn't do anything at Kowalski's kegger. If anything, Chuck was nothing but a gentleman to me that night. While the other guys were all trying to get in my pants, Chuck took care of me. And the reason why I left the house yesterday to look for him was because I was worried about him. You got that?"

Bryce avoided making eye contact with her, but instead he looked at Chuck. "Why would she be worried about you? Aren't you usually too busy jacking off to your comic books?"

Chuck pulled her away by her shoulders with surprising strength just as she was about to knee Bryce in the groin. As she struggled to pull away from him, Chuck said, "She was worried about me because my dad left while I was at the dance."

"What do you mean your dad left?"

"He just left," said Chuck. "So Sarah left her house because she's a good friend, okay?"

Bryce's brows scrunched together. "So he just ran off?"

"Pretty much."

"Why?"

Chuck shrugged as he let Sarah go. "I couldn't tell you."

"Dude…" sighed Bryce. He opened his mouth to say more, but stopped, looking behind Chuck's shoulder.

Confused, Sarah turned to see that Jill was behind them; about a yard away.

"False alarm, Lill," called Bryce's voice from behind Sarah. For a moment, she wondered who Lill was, but realized that Bryce had just gotten Jill's name wrong. "They didn't bang at Kowalski's."

Jill ignored Bryce, while Sarah rolled her eyes. Stupid high school rumors, she thought, as Jill said, "Your dad left?"

Chuck nodded solemnly.

"And you didn't tell me?" she demanded.

"Oh, wow, are you serious?" Sarah had to laugh at the absurdity of it. In a second, stupid Jill was going to flip out. And even Sarah had to admit that, yes, if Bryce had gone through something that huge, and he didn't confide in her, that she would be annoyed. But to actually make it about her? That was just dumb. "Seriously. You're going to freak out on Chuck because he didn't tell you that his dad left?"

"Sarah," groaned Chuck.

She ignored him. "I get it, you're his girlfriend. But he's _your_ boyfriend, and he just went through this huge life-changing…_thing_, in one night! Cut him some slack for not telling you right away, and quit being a bitch about it."

"Sarah, stop," said Chuck with a stern look on his face. "Like you said, Jill's my girlfriend, and I don't want you to talk to her like that."

"Well, someone has to!" she protested. But just then, Jill stormed away and Chuck followed, calling after her.

Sarah wasn't going to lie, Chuck defending stupid Jill, and chasing after her was a punch to the gut. And she feared that Chuck was angry with her.

"Poor guy," mumbled Bryce.

"What?"

"I seriously feel bad for the guy," he explained. "His dad really left without telling him?"

"Yeah." She turned to Bryce, who genuinely looked upset.

"Well, go make sure he's okay." He nudged her forward. "That Lill girl was scary pissed when I told her that you and Chuck banged at Kowalski's. Seriously, I'm glad that I didn't have El Mariachi last night, if you know what I mean."

Sarah laughed.

"Go save the nerd."

* * *

**Anger**

"Jill! Wait!" cried Chuck, pushing past the other students near the school entrance.

"Your dad left you all alone, and you didn't tell me!" Jill yelled so loudly that he was sure the citizens of China heard. The crowd around Chuck suddenly got quiet. All eyes were locked on him, and Jill continued, "I'm your _girlfriend_!"

"Jeez, drama queen," he murmured, feeling extremely self-conscious with everyone staring at him.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing!" he quickly replied, cowering as she advanced quickly on him.

She wasn't a Rancor today. No. She was something else entirely…maybe Kong. An angry Kong that just wanted to go home, swatting down airplanes like they were moths. Suddenly, Chuck wished that he was wearing a white dress and a blonde wig.

Jill stepped up close to him, and his heart was probably a second away from failing at the sight of her angry glare. "What bothers me the most," she said in a chillingly calm voice, "is that Sarah knew before I did. And I kept calling you all day yesterday. The least you could have done was called me back."

Before he could explain himself, Jill stormed away as the crowd parted like the Red Sea. Chuck sighed. She did have a reason (though he thought it was a weak one) to be angry with him. Jill was like him—self-conscious and an outcast at school. It was obvious from the minute they started dating that Jill was intimidated by Sarah. He could understand that, as nearly everyone was intimidated by her. Even he was, and he had known her for nearly their entire lives.

"What happened?" Sarah's voice broke through his thoughts, and she quickly turned to the crowd. With just a look from the blonde, the crowd quickly scattered away. She turned to Chuck again. "Did she break up with you?"

"Not yet," he said, rubbing his chin. "It's probably a matter of time before she does, though."

"Good. You can do better than her." He scowled, but Sarah didn't cower. "What? It's the truth. If more girls knew you like I did, they'd be lucky to have you."

He rolled his eyes. Yeah, and that was why she had broken up with him all those years ago, and that was why she had dated other guys instead of him throughout the years. "Oh, I bet!" he deadpanned. "They'd be breaking down the doors trying to get to me!"

Sarah glared. "Come on, Chuck, don't do that. It's annoying."

He sighed. He knew that Sarah was just being nice when she had said that, and that him playing the pity-card was annoying to even him. "Well, either way, I really like Jill."

"Why?" she challenged. "What makes her so special? To me, she seems like a self-centered bi—"

"Don't finish that," he said. "You don't hear me saying stuff about Bryce."

"What's there to—" she broke off, a look of realization formed. "Touché."

Chuck smiled. "Yeah. And Jill, she's really not that bad when it's just the two of us hanging out. I think she's intimidated by you, you know?"

"Why would she be?"

He couldn't help but laugh. "Dude, you're Sarah Walker, that's why. The most beautiful girl in the school, the girl that all the guys want, and the girl that all the girls want to be. And you're my best friend. I totally understand why Jill's like that when you're around." He offered a shrug.

Sarah turned the slightest shade of pink. They both turned away. Sarah looked down at her feet, while Chuck stared at the flagpole. Finally, she broke the silence. "Does she make you happy?"

He thought for a moment. Jill was the only person, besides Morgan, that played video games, enjoyed sci-fi movies, and comic books. Though really, if he wanted someone to nerd out with, then he could have just gone over to Morgan's. Burbank wasn't too far. But she was also pretty, smart, and she could be funny too. Wasn't that all you needed in a relationship? And when she wasn't in Rancor mode, or Kong mode, he actually did have a lot of fun with her.

"Yeah, I guess she does."

Sarah nodded as the first bell rang. "C'mon, I'll walk you to your class."

They walked in silence to Chuck's chemistry class. Before he walked into the classroom, she grabbed his elbow. "Remember, if you feel like you can't…_deal_…or whatever, let me know, okay?"

"Okay," he said while Sarah smiled at him. "Thanks."

"I'll see you after class."

"Sounds good."

Sarah gave his elbow a squeeze and jogged off to her first class of the day. When she turned the corner, Chuck walked into the classroom, sat down at his lab table, and pulled out his homework. Bryce walked in soon after, and as he reached out a hand to clap Chuck on the shoulder, Chuck shuddered because he thought Bryce was going to punch him. Instead, it was just a typical tap on the shoulder. Next, Carina walked in, sank down into the stool next to his, and held out her hand.

"I didn't do your report," he said, not looking at her. Normally, he would have felt bad about it, but he was surprised that he wasn't.

Anger spread throughout her face. "What?"

"I didn't have time to do it." It was true. He had been too busy watching Sarah being surprisingly good at _Zelda_. "And just a thought, maybe you could do your own homework from now on? I have more important things to do."

"What could a nerd like you have to do that's so important? It probably doesn't take too long to polish your wand, right?"

"I don't even have a wand."

Carina raised a brow. "I always knew Walker was into girls."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. Carina's eyes flicked to his crotch, and he finally caught the innuendo. Glaring, he blurted, "Sarah _is_ right about you. You're a bitch."

Immediately, after the words spilled out from his mouth, he regretted it. Carina gave him a scandalized look. "What'd you just call me?"

"Leave him alone, Carina," said Bryce from behind them. "He's had a rough weekend."

Chuck turned, baffled, to Bryce who just gave him a solemn nod. That was the first time anyone but Sarah had stood up for him at school. It was…_nice_, he thought, but awkward. From the corner of his eye, he could see Carina alternating a confused look between him and Bryce.

"Did Bryce _touch_ you?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

It was Chuck's turn to give her a scandalized look. Seriously, who would even _think_ that? "No, Bryce didn't touch me."

"Well, then what the hell is wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Chuck. Especially with someone he didn't even know very well, he thought.

* * *

**Bargaining**

Maybe Chuck wasn't being honest with her when he said that Jill made him happy. How could he even know that? It wasn't like he socialized much with girls other than her and Jill. But Sarah still needed to find Jill. There was no way she was going to let someone else leave Chuck. When Chuck finally realized that Jill wasn't the right girl for him, he could end that relationship on his terms. Not now, though, when he probably wasn't sure if he even liked Jill to the point where he'd want to continue dating her, and especially when his father had just left him.

Sarah scanned around the hall, looking for any sign of stupid Jill. She was probably going to be late for her Trig class, but Mr. Rivera wouldn't care if she was late anyway. When she turned into the Literature section of the school, she saw who she was looking for—stupid Jill—about to walk into her class.

"Hey, Jill!" she yelled, jogging over to the brunette. "Hold up!"

Jill flashed her a dirty look and proceeded into her class. Sarah sprinted and grabbed Jill above her elbow and yanked.

"Ow!" shrieked Jill, pulling her arm away from Sarah.

"Shut up," said Sarah coldly, "that didn't hurt."

The look on Jill's face was nothing short of the enraged fury that came out of Satan's butt hole, but Sarah didn't flinch.

"Well, what do you want?" asked Jill, rubbing her arm.

"What I want is for you to quit being the world's biggest bitch." Sarah flung her hair back. "Do you have any idea what Chuck went through last weekend?"

Jill's face softened just the slightest bit. "I just…why didn't he call me? I mean, you obviously knew about it. Why did he tell you but not me?"

"Okay, first of all, he didn't tell me. It was a huge surprise, actually." She shuddered at the thought of Chuck seeing her good girl. If it was under different circumstances, well…she wouldn't have minded as much. She pushed that thought away. "While we were all at homecoming, Chuck's dad came to talk to my parents, okay? He asked them to take care of him, because he had to go away." Jill opened her mouth to say something, that was most likely something stupid, but Sarah held up her hand. "Before you make this about you again, Chuck's dad asked my parents because my family has known his family for fourteen years, so we've all established some trust."

"Chuck's living with _you_, now?"

Sarah flinched. She didn't even know that it was possible for someone to be as dramatic as Jill. "Oh my God, drama queen! Calm down! Where else is he going to stay?"

Stupid Jill stood there looking stupid. At that moment, Sarah thought up of a lot more adjectives to use for Jill, but she decided to just stick with stupid. She let out a sigh.

"Listen, for reasons I don't understand, Chuck likes you. I mean, yeah, you're pretty, but to me, that just doesn't cut it because you're obviously a self-centered cuh—" she caught herself before she had said an extremely nasty word aloud, "bitch. Anyway, he likes you, and he cares about you. That's all that should matter. If you break up with him, then you're going to break him more than he already is right now."

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Jill.

"Because I care about Chuck, stupid!" If Jill made Sarah roll her eyes one more time, she was certain they were going to pop out of her head. "I've known Chuck for fourteen years, okay? I've been there with him, through everything good and bad. And I know, since his dad just left, that if you break up with him, he's going to…" she broke off, feeling a lump in her throat that she quickly swallowed. "I just don't want to see him hurting, okay? You're lucky to have him. Just…just…please don't hurt him."

She didn't give Jill a chance to respond as she turned to walk away. What happened next was up to stupid Jill, and for the first time, Sarah really hoped, for Chuck's sake, that Jill really wasn't as stupid as she thought she was.

If only things had been different.

Sarah stormed through the halls, lost in her thoughts about how things could have played out if only she had told Chuck what she had wanted to tell him at the dance: that she loved him. Not in the friendly, platonic way, but in the actual, "Oh my gosh! When I think about you, I feel my heart breaking. But at the same time, my heart feels complete," kind of way. But there was just too much risk involved. She knew how big of a bitch move it was for her to be afraid of what people would think if she and Chuck dated. And no matter how much she hated herself, she couldn't ignore it. Sometimes she even had nightmares about the countless number of faces laughing at her.

She was a coward.

"Hey, babe!" Bryce was waiting for her by her locker, and at the sight of his face, all her thoughts broke away. "You're running pretty late."

"I don't want to date you anymore." She gently pushed him away from her locker, and twirled the combo-lock.

"What?"

Sarah repeated herself as she took her Trigonometry text book out of her locker. Bryce stood in front of her looking flabbergasted, and Sarah wondered why she wasn't feeling sorry for him. At that moment, she realized that she was indeed a bitch. What hurt her was that she realized that she really wasn't so different from stupid Jill.

She really had to change that about herself. "I'm sorry, Bryce," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just…I don't know. I guess I'm not happy with you. I know that sounds incredibly bitchy, but it's the truth. And I _am_ sorry, because you _can_ be a good guy."

Poor Bryce seemed to have transformed from a sixteen-year old teen to a tearful five-year old child. "You're really dumping me?"

She nodded her head. "I'm sorry."

"Oh…" he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Well, at least we had fun."

Since she didn't know what exactly to say to that, she nodded again. "Okay."

"Can we still be friends? I mean, I was thinking about asking Chuck if he wanted to hang out, because I feel bad for the guy. Maybe we could all hang out together?"

It was extremely hard to fight her grimace at the thought of the three of them all hanging out together. But she gritted her teeth, and smiled. "That would be…_nice_."

He sniffed. "Cool."

"Okay, well…I should get to class, I'm already late," she said, sidestepping Bryce and power-walking down the hall.

Today was just weird, she thought. There was no other way of putting it.

* * *

**Acceptance**

"You're sure you don't want to just wait for me at the library?" asked Sarah, looking up at Chuck while she was tying her cleats. He had told her that he was going to sit up on the bleachers to do his homework for the night. She suspected that he was avoiding Jill, probably because he thought she was going to break up with him. Chuck was never the kind of guy to rip off the band-aid quickly.

He looked around the field. "Actually, I can't remember if I told you this earlier, but I sort of called, well, I called Carina a bitch in Chemistry today. I was thinking—"

Sarah's laughter cut him off. Chuck called Carina a bitch? Good for him! That whorish redhead had it coming to her. Still laughing, she held up her hand for a high-five.

"Dude," he began, not slapping his hand against hers, "I felt terrible after I said it. I was thinking that after practice, I could apologize to her."

It was just like him to want to apologize, but she really couldn't help from scoffing. "Chuck, she doesn't deserve an apology. Obviously, if you called her a bitch, then she deserved it." She nodded wisely and stood up. Resting a hand on Chuck's shoulder, she began to stretch out her quads. "Why'd you call her a bitch, anyway?"

He blushed, looking at something over her shoulder. "Um…well…I don't know. I mean, she got mad at me because I didn't do her lab report, and you know how she is."

Sarah alternated hands and stretched out her other quad. "Yeah, I know how she is. What'd she say, though? You're not one to call someone a bitch." She looked up thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, you've never called anyone a bitch."

"There's a first time for everything."

"What'd she say?"

"Something about me polishing my wand, and she wanted to know if that was why I was busy."

"Polishing your wand? Do you even own—oh."

"Yeah, and that was the second jerk-off joke I heard in the span of like fifteen minutes," he huffed. "I don't even do it that—I don't do it."

Sarah bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling accusingly at him. But when he turned a deep shade of red, she couldn't hold in the laughter anymore. Even he began to laugh, but he playfully pushed her while she was still stretching her quads, which caused her to almost fall over.

"You turd!" she cried, laughing, as she gave him a playful shove of her own.

Chuck retorted by sticking out his tongue. With another laugh, Sarah launched herself at him, tickling him under his ribs. Like a pile of Jenga blocks, he collapsed on the ground, giving her the perfect opportunity to tear off his shoes. She quickly sat on his knees so that he couldn't kick.

"NO!" he cried, squirming to get away. "Please, no!"

She ignored him, and tore off his sock. She flexed her fingers quickly, and dug them into the bottom of his foot, wriggling them against it. Behind her, Chuck was laughing, letting out weird animal noises, and squirming all at once.

"I'm sorry!"

"Sorry for what?" she asked over her shoulder as she continued to tickle his foot.

"For pushing you!"

"I don't believe you," she said, cackling. "But maybe if you did the Truffle Shuffle, I'll believe you."

"Never!"

Trying to catch her breath, she was about to tell Chuck that he was making a huge mistake, but Coach Fredericks called out, "Walker! Get off Bartowski and on to the field. Now!"

Still giggling, she rolled off Chuck and helped him to his feet. "This isn't over, Bartowski. I know where you sleep."

"Well, I know where your dad keeps the duct tape, so good luck trying to tickle my feet," he retorted with a wink.

Making a mental note to sprint home to hide the duct tape, because duct taping his shoelaces would be something he would do, Sarah grinned. "It's on, bean pole." Before giving Chuck a chance to respond, she sprinted over to the field where her teammates were gathered.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Queen Sarah," said Coach Fredericks. "Okay, we're going to run some suicide drills. Get on it, ladies!"

The girls all groaned as they began to line up to run the drill. The coach blew the whistle and all the girls started to sprint, Sarah and Carina leading the pack. Sarah was still grinning about the events from before¸ but her thoughts were quickly shattered.

"Hey, Taylor Hanson!" called Carina.

Sarah turned, "What—damn it!" She had given Carina a win by responding to Taylor Hanson. Oh, well. It was a small price to pay after having a bit of fun with Chuck, especially after a weird day like today.

"Made ya look," the redhead sneered, as they reached the end of the field, turned, and sprinted the other way. They ran past the other girls who had yet to reach the end. "What's up with your nerd friend? Chucky?"

"What do you mean?" She picked up her pace.

"He called me a bitch this morning."

Sarah tried not to laugh. "And that's a problem, because…?"

"It hurt my feelings! I expect that shit from other people, but not him!"

"Well, boo-fucking-hoo."

"Then Bryce was like, 'Leave him alone, he had a rough weekend.' And I was thinking that maybe those two were getting busy."

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"And everyone was talking about how you and Chucky banged at the kegger. At first, I thought it wasn't true, because how many rumors are true at this school, you know?"

Sarah stumbled in surprise. Carina was, in her weird way, standing up for her? Crazy. "Yeah?"

"I thought about it more," the redhead continued as they reached the goal line and turned. "And it makes total sense!"

And there that went, thought Sarah.

"So Chuck is having a rough time because you gave him a case of the herps, huh?"

Sarah flashed Carina a murderous look while the other grinned.

"Okay, but seriously." She was sobering up now. "What's wrong with the nerd?"

"Why do you care?"

"He hurt my feelings, bitch! I always thought he was a nice guy, and when he called me a bitch, I was like, 'What the hell, man?'"

Though if felt odd to tell Carina this (because, frankly, it wasn't her business), Sarah told her what had happened with Chuck's father.

"Oh, so those rumors were true, then?"

She nodded. "Yep. You can be a bitch to me all you want, but just leave Chuck alone for awhile, okay?"

"I was just curious," said Carina. "What about the rumors about the kegger? Did you and the nerd do it? Is that why Bryce broke up with you?"

"Is that what he's telling everyone?" What a typical guy thing to do, she thought. Crying after their girlfriend broke up with them, and then playing it cool, telling people that they were the ones that broke it off, because "she was a crazy bitch," or "she was such a slut, dude," it was so typical.

"Yeah."

"No, that's not why 'he broke up with me.'" She put her hands up in air-quotes. "And no, Chuck and I didn't do it at the kegger. Wait—" she broke off, realizing something, "why am I justifying myself to you?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're in heat."

"Well…maybe you're…shut up!" She was _really_ off her game today.

"Awesome comeback." Carina laughed. "No wonder they call you Sarah 'Comeback' Walker, emphasis on the 'come.'"

Thankfully (since she didn't have a clever retort for that one either), Coach Fredericks blew the whistle.

The rest of the practice was spent on passing drills, defensive sweeps and tackles, and curve kicks. Throughout, Sarah was preoccupied. Nearly everyone at school thought she and Chuck had either made out or had sex at the party on Saturday, and her popularity, or status, or whatever hadn't changed one bit. People came to her to say hi or just to chat. None of the people she sat at lunch with had acted different, either.

People wouldn't care if she dated Chuck! She could have dated him a long time ago, and no one would have cared! All that time she had wasted, the times they could have shared. And Chuck, he surely would have received his first kiss from her a long time ago as well!

Forgetting about the curve kick drill, Sarah looked over at the bleachers. "Oh my God," she breathed.

Chuck was standing with Jill, and he was moving in for a hug. Only it wasn't a hug. Sarah saw Jill stand up on her tip-toes, and her heart broke when she saw their lips meeting somewhere in the middle. This was what it must have felt like to get stabbed in the chest, she thought.

"Heads up, Walker!"

She turned too late. The next thing she felt was a crushing blow to her face. The last thing she saw before getting hit by a soccer ball was stupid Jill eating Chuck's face.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! There's some big things coming ahead, like…a _Breakfast Club_homage, Heather Chandler, a fist fight, Sarah dressing up like Princess Leia, and….maybe…San Francisco? What?

As for **Roads**, that is seriously a tough one to write, you guys. I'm going to be honest with you, haven't worked on that one in ages. Is it abandoned? No. That's not fair to those who have read it from the beginning and became invested in it. So I promise you that there will be an update for that bad mama!

I have been working on something else for the past couple of months that is **Roads** related. It's a prequel, of sorts, about Sarah's parents. Mr. Walker/Jack/Gerald is going to play a pretty huge part in an upcoming chapter of **Roads**, and I wanted to tell his story in full. So I began to write a fic called **The Long Con**.

Here's a small preview:

**_Jack shook his head. Pull it together, he told himself as he did his best to smile as charmingly as he could. He handed the woman her purse. Her smile was of the relieved variety._**

**_"Thank you so much," she repeated, "Mister…"_**

**_"Burton. But you can call me Jack, Miss…"_**

**_"Stark. Dana Stark." Dana held out her hand. "Honestly Jack, that was a really brave thing you just did."_**

**_"It was nothing. I was just being a good Samaritan," he said, still grinning confidently. Jack took her hand and winced in pain from the previous punch to Lunchbox's face._**

**_Her smile faded into a look of concern. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have squeezed your hand so hard!" She pulled her hand back and brought it to her chest, the other holding it like she had just been burned. Then her eyes widened, and she quickly pulled open her purse. "Your nose is bleeding, you poor thing." She held out a handkerchief that she had pulled from her purse._**

**_"No, really, I'm fine," he insisted, waving off her offer._**

**_Dana shook her head. "I think it might be broken, Mr. Burton."_**

**_"It's Jack," he said with a chuckle. "And my nose is fine, Ms. Stark."_**

**_"Well, at the least, we should put some ice on it." Dana brought a finger to her lip as she looked around the street. Jack followed her gaze and was surprised to see that there was still a crowd of people around them. "There's a diner down the street. I can get you a cup of coffee as a thank you and put some ice on your hand and nose."_**

**_"Really, I'm—"_**

**_"Christ, son, did that guy give you brain damage?" Jack turned to see an old man, probably in his late fifties, scowling at him and wagging a finger. "A pretty girl like that just invited you for a cup of coffee, and you're gonna deny that? You must be kooky!"_**

-Let me know if you guys are interested in reading that one! I even made a cover! I am **that** excited about it, you guys. For serious.  
http:(slash)(slash)twitpic(dot)com/5dn5mf


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